PART I. 

SPIEITUAL SUPREMACY. 



THE 



PRIMACY 



OP 



THE APOSTOLIC SEE 



VINDICATED, 



BY 

FRANCIS PATRICK KENRICK, 

ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE. 



" Ipsa est petra quam non vincunt superbae inferorum portse. 

Augustinus, in Ps. contra partem Donati. 



FOUHTH REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION. 



BALTIMORE: 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO. 

178 MARKET STREET. 

LONDON CHARLES DOLMAN. 

61 NEW BOND STREET. 

PITTSBURG GEORGE QUIGLEY. 

Sold by Boolsellers generally. 

18 55. 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1S55, hy 
JOHN MURPHY & COMPANY, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. 



TO 



POPE PIUS IX. 

THE FOLLOWING VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF HIS SEE, 

AND 

THE ACTS OF HIS PREDECESSORS, 

IS INSCRIBED, 
AS A TOKEN 0¥ FILIAL SUBMISSION AND DEVOTED ADMIRATION, 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



Ox the presentation of the last edition of this work to His Holiness Pius 
IX., the author was honored with a letter, of which the following is a 
translation : — 



PIUS IX. 

Venerable Brother, Health and Apostolic Benediction — 

From your letter of 27th May of this year, addressed to us, 
we clearly perceive the great attachment and reverence which you, 
Venerable Brother, cherish for Us and for this Supreme chair of 
Peter. We cannot find words to express how highly we applaud 
your pious undertaking in vindication of the rights of this Holy 
Apostolic See, and of the primacy of the Roman Pontiffs, in the 
work published by you in the English language. The new edition 
of this work published this year, and dedicated to Us, in token of 
your filial attachment and devotedness, which, however, we are 
unable to read, being unacquainted with English, will, we trust, 
prove highly useful for the defence of our rights, and of those of 
the Apostolic See against the impious attacks of our enemies. On 
which account You yourself, Venerable Brother, can conceive and 
imagine how great consolation "We derive from your undertaking, 
and especially from the zeal with which you cheerfully devote your- 
self to the discharge of your pastoral office. Continue, then, to 
pray earnestly to Almighty God, that He may calm the dreadful 
storm which rages around us, and grant at length that the church 
may everywhere enjoy peace in His worship. In the mean time, 
receive, as a token of our favor and grateful feeling for your good 
offices, the Apostolic Benediction, which, as a pledge of- heavenly 
happiness, We affectionately impart with our whole heart to your- 
self, Venerable Brother, to be communicated by you to all the 
clergy and faithful people over whom you preside. 

Given at Rome, at St. Mary Major's, on the 27th July, in the 
year 1848, in the third year of our Pontificate. 

PIUS P. P. IX. 

To Our Venerable Brother, 

Francis Patrice, Bishop of Philadelphia, 

4 



PREFACE. 



This work first appeared in the year 1837, in the form of let- 
ters to the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Vermont, John Henry 
Hopkins, in reply to a work on the Church of Rome, addressed by 
him to the Roman Catholic Hierarchy. In 1845 it was enlarged, 
and took the form of a general treatise on the Primacy ; and in 
1848 it was republished, with an improved arrangement of the 
matters which it embraced. In 1853 a German translation, made 
by Rev. Nicholas Steinbacher, S. J., was issued, with some altera- 
tions made by me in the last edition. The present edition contains 
some further corrections, although of little importance. The sub- 
mission of Mr. Allies to the authority of the Holy See, of which 
he has become an able defender, rendered it proper to retrench 
many observations made in refutation of his positions as an apolo- 
gist of - the Church of England. Mr. Manning also, now recog- 
nising the centre of unity, no longer deserves the reproach of 
inconsistency. The many striking avowals made by Dr. J. W. 
Nevin, late President of Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pennsyl- 
vania, are freely quoted in support of the authority of the Catholic 
Church and of the Holy See, although it may perplex the reader 
to understand how he should still remain out of our communion. 
The other alterations in this edition are chiefly verbal. The work 
now goes before the public in a permanent form, being stereotyped, 
with the hope that it may serve to dispel those prejudices which 
withhold so many from union with the See of Peter, of which 
Augustin has well said that God has established the doctrine of 
truth in the chair of unity. 

Baltimore, 1855. 



5 



CONTENTS, 



PART I. 



SPIRITUAL SUPREMACY. 

PAGE 

Chapter I. — Nature of the Primacy 17 

Organization of the Church by Christ — Necessity of a Central Power — Pre- 
sumptive Evidence — Motives of Luther — Henry VIII. — Photius — Prejudices 
against the Papacy — Federal System — Abuses. 

Chapter II. — Promise of the Primacy 24 

Custom of our Lord — Change of Name — Concession of Barrow — Promise — 
Personal Faith — Admission of the First Converts — Christ the Rock — Difference 
of Gender — Bloomfield's Admission — Gerard — Thompson — Christ the Founda- 
tion — St. Leo the Great — Figure of the Keys — Rebuke to Peter — Rivalry of 
the Apostles — Prayer for Simon. 

Chapter III. — The Fathers' Exposition of the Promise 34 

Authority of the Fathers — Tertullian — Origen — Mystical Fancies — St. Cy- 
prian — Peter Represents the Church — On him the Church is Built — St. James 
of Nisibis — St. Cyril of Jerusalem — St. Basil the Great — St. Gregory of Nazian- 
zum — St. Chrysostom — Peter is placed over the entire World — St. Epiphanius — 
St. Cyril of Alexandria — St. Hilary of Poictiers — Faith of Peter — Arian Heresy 
— St. Optatus — St. Ambrose — Power of Forgiveness — Equality of Paul to Peter 
— St. Jerom — Occasion of Schism Removed — On that Rock the Church is Built 
— St. Augustin — Hesitation — The Church through Peter receives the Keys — St. 
Leo the Great — Various Interpretations. 

Chapter IV. — Institution of the Primacy 57 

Manifestation of our Lord — Feed Lambs and Sheep — Union of Jews and 
Gentiles — One Fold, one Shepherd — Barrow's Avowal — St. Francis de Sales — 
Perpetuity of the Power — Headship of Peter reconciled with that of Christ — 
AYisdom of Christ — Bossuet. 



Chapter V. — Exposition of the Commission 64 

Origen — Cyprian — Unity of the Church — Barrow's Admission — St. Cyril of 
Jerusalem — St. Chrysostom — St. Ambrose — St. Augustin — St. Leo — St. Gregory 
the Great^-St. Bernard. 

Chapter VI. — Exercise of the Primacy 70 

Call of Matthias — Remark of Chrysostom — Council of Jerusalem — Result of 
Peter's Address — Tertullian — St. Jerom — Theodoret — Chrysostom — Model of 
Councils — Bossuet — Potter — To send sometimes implies superiority — Conde- 
scension of Peter — St. Gregory the Great — Cephas at Antioch — Visit of Paul 
to Peter — The Jews committed to the charge of Peter, the Gentiles to Paul — 
Address of Peter to his Fellow-Bishops. 

Chapter VII. — Peter Bishop of Rome 79 

Admission of Cave — Babylon — Clement — Ignatius — Papias — Ireneeus — Dio- 
nysius of Corinth — Cajus — Origen — Cyprian — Eusebius — Theodoret — Palmer's 
Admission — Difficulty of arranging Chronology — Both Apostles Founders of the 
Roman Church — Apostleship compatible with Episcopacy — Silence of St. Paul 
—Palmer's Admission. 

7 



8 



CONTEXTS. 



Chapter VIII. — Kornan Church 85 

Transmission of the Power of Peter — St. Ignatius M. addresses the Church 
that Presides — Celebrated Passage of St. Irenasus — Palmer's Admission — Ter- 
tullian — St. Cyprian — Root and Matrix — Dr. Hopkins — Authority of Roman 
Clergy — The Emperor Aurelian's Reference to Roman Bishops — St. Augustin 
— St. Jerom — Bishops everywhere equal in order — Bishops of Province of 
Aries — Dignity of Imperial City — Concessions of Emperors — Decree of Valen- 
tinian — Concession of Palmer. 



Chapter IX.— Centre of Unity. 

| 1. Communion with See of Rome 97 

Remark of Hallam — St. Cyprian — To communicate with the Roman Bishop 
is to communicate with the Catholic Church — Union of Spirit without identity 
in Faith is chimerical — Episcopate in solidum — St. Ambrose — St Optatus — 
Evasion of Palmer — St. Augustin — Roman Catholic. 

£ 2. Interruptions of Communion 103 

Meletius — St. Jerom — Liberality of the Holy See — Inconsistency of Palmer 
— Testimony of John, Bishop of Constantinople — St. Cyprian on Unity. 

Chapter X. — Ancient Examples of Papal Authority. 

$ 1. Disturbances at Corinth 10S 

Letter of Clement. 

I 2. Paschal Controversy 109 

Difference of Discipline — Polycarp and Anicetus — Measures of Victor. 

$ 3. Montanism Ill 

Tertullian — Bishop of Bishops — Faber's Admission — Peter's Church. 

$ 4. Controversy Concerning Baptism 113 

African Decree — Pope Stephen — Asiatic Usage — Vincent of Lerins — Papal 

Authority — St. Cyprian — St. Jerom — St. Augustin. 

§ 5. JDonatism 119 

Cecilius of Carthage — Decree of Constantine — Sentence of Melchiades — 
Council of Aries. 



Chapter XI. — Guardianship of Faith. 

I 1. Constancy of the Holy See 123 

Theophylact — Innocent III. — Early Heresies. 
§2. Chief Mysteries 124 



Divinity of Christ — Dionysius of Alexandria accused — Arianism — Liberius 
Vindicated — Testimony of Sozomen — Heresy of Apollinaris — Edict of Theodo- 
sius — St. Basil — The East as well as the West receives the Decrees of Rome — 
Nestorius — St. Cyril — Decree of Celestine — Council of Ephesus — Eutyches — 
Flavian writes to the Pope — Letter of Valentinian — Council of Chalcedon — 
Acknowledgment of Palmer — Blessed Virgin. 



I 3. Grace 137 

African Councils — Innocent I. — Further Examination superfluous — Zosimus 
—St. Prosper — St. Vincent of Lerins — Paulinus of Milan — Xestorius — St. Leo. 

§ 4. Testimonies of Fathers 143 

St. Jerom — St. Leo — Acknowledgment of Casaubon. 
$ 5. Vindication of Honorius 145 

Anathema — Letters of Honorius — Agatho — St. Bernard — Bishops of Tar- 
ragona. 

Chapter XII. — Governing Power. 

§ 1. Exercise of Auth ority 149 

St. Celestine — St. Cyprian — Decree of Siricius — Innocent I. — Zosimus — St, 
Leo — Just Declaration of Bossuet — Dispensing Power — Boniface I. — Con- 
sultations. 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE 

$2. Universal Patriarch 156 

John the Faster — Council of Chalcedon — St. Gregory the Great — Byzantium 
— Acknowledgment of the Eastern Church — Acts of Gregory — Serenus of Mar- 
seilles admonished — Patriarchs address Gregory with reverence — Decree of 
Phocas. 

Chapter XIII. — The Hierarchy. 

\ 1. Patriarchal System 161 

Extent of Western Patriarchate — Origin of Patriarchal Jurisdiction — Sixth 
Canon of Nice — Version of Ruffinus — Suburbicarian Churches — Boniface I. — 
Council of Chalcedon — St. Leo. 

$ 2. Western Patriarchate 164 

Innocent I. — Pallium — Primates — Guizot — Clinch. 
§ 3. Apostolic Vicars 167 

Barrow's Avowal — First Instance of Apostolic Vicar for Ulyricum — Pontifi- 
cal Instructions — St. Leo the Great — Modern Vicars Apostolic — Bishops not 
mere Delegates. 

§ 4. Papal Relation to Patriarchs 170 

Patriarchal Power — Dependence on the Pontiff — Juvenal of Jerusalem — 
Bishop of Constantinople — Embassy to Rome — St. Basil. 

Chapter XIV. — Deposition of Bishops. 175 



Occasional Encroachments — Ancient Reservation to the Holy See — Potter's 
Testimony — Deposition of Marcian of Aides, solicited by St. Cyprian — Roman 
Council — Imperial Edict — Mosheim and Maclaine — Zosimus — Celestine — 
Council of Chalcedon — Ephesus — Bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Constan- 
tinople Deposed — Anthimus Deposed byAgapitus — Primate of Byzacium. 

Chapter XY. — Appeals. 

$ 1. Ancient Examples 183 

Marcion goes to Rome — Basilides — Cyprian's Judgment — Privatus of Lam- 
besita — Cyprian complains of wanton appeals as calculated to defeat justice — 
Appeal of Athanasius — Letter of Julius — Custom to write first to Rome — Mar- 
cellus of Ancyra — Passage of Socrates — Council of Sardica — St. Basil an Illus- 
trious Witness — Appeal of Chrysostom. 

$ 2. African Controversy 

Council of Carthage — Appeal of Apiarius — Sardican Canons — Misnomer- 
Appeals of Bishops — Letter to the Pope — Appeal of Celestius — African In 
stances of Appeal. 

§ 3. Promiscuous Examples 

Chelidonius — Flavian — American Editor of Mosheim — Theodoret — John Ta 
laja — Enumeration of Appeals by Barrow — Pope Gelasius. 



Chapter XVI.— The Church of England. 

\ 1. Britons 205 

Introduction of Christianity — British Bishops in Councils of Aries and Sar- 
dica — St. Germanus Legate of Celestine to the Britons — Bishops of Cyprus — 
Autocephalous Character — Forgery of Address of Abbot Dinoth — Fuller's 
Quaint Acknowledgment — Gregory gives Anthority over British Bishops. 

§ 2. Anglo-Saxon Church 209 

Canterbury Founded by Augustin. 

§ 3. Paschal Controversy 210 

Britons and Irish follow Old Cycle — King Oswiu decides in favor of the 
Roman usage. 

§ 4. Anglo-Saxon Hierarchy 211 

Plan Traced by Gregory — Changes made by Vitalian and Agatho — Lichfield 
raised to Metropolitical Dignity by Adrian — Pallium — Several English Metro- 
politans go to Rome : some are consecrated by the Pope — Papal Legates. 

g 5. Acknowledgment of the Primacy 213 

Bede — Alcuin — Anglo-Saxon Pontifical — Councils — Deposition of Bishops — 
Appeal of Wilfrid. 



195 



201 



10 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



£ 6. Modern Church of England 217 

Measures of Henry VIII. — Futile Attempts of Palmer — Female Supremacy. 

Chapter XVII. — Papal Prerogatives 221 

False Decretals — Presidency of the Universal Church — St. Leo — Plight to 
Judge in Controversies of Faith — Definitions ex cathedra — Assembly of 1682 — 
Plenitude of Power — New Organization of French Hierarchy — Hypothetical 
Argument of Bellarmine — Acknowledgment of Voltaire — Relations of Pope to 



Councils — Not necessary to define extent of prerogative — Observation of 
Palmer. 

Chapter XVIII. — Unbroken Succession of the Bishops of Rome. 232 

Invitation of Augustin — Schism of Novatian — Cornelius Bishop of the 
Catholic Church — St. Cyprian — Felix Intruded — Schisms — Imperial Interfer- 
ence — Great Schism — Absence from Rome — Simoniacal Elections — Interreg- 
nums — Fable of Pope Joan — Elizabeth of England — St. Augustius Appeal. 



Chapter XIX. — Papal Election. 

§ 1. Imperial Interposition 211 

Interference of Odoacer, King of- Italy — Eastern Emperor — Popes Conse- 
crated without the Imperial Assent — Western Emperors — Oath required by 
Otho I. — Amount of Deference to Emperors — St. Gregory VII. — Esclusiva. 

§ 2. Mode of Election 244 

Office not to be bequeathed — Popular Influence — St. Celestine — Council of 
Laodicea — Conclave. 

Chapter XX. — Ceremonies. 

£ 1. Ceremonies after Election 246 

Adoration — Kissing of the foot, Ancient Oriental Rite — Chair of State. 

£ 2. Ceremonies of Coronation 250 

Burning of Bunch of Flax — Pallium — Gospel in Latin and Greek — Tiara — 

Cap of Liberty — Address of Council of Baltimore. 



PART II. 

SECULAR RELATIONS. 
Chapter I. — Patrimony of St. Peter 255 

No Earthly Possessions, or Dominion given by Christ — Wealth of the Ro- 
man Church — Donation of Constantine — Humane Treatment of Tenants — 
French Princes — Title of Patrician — Acts of Sovereignty — Heroism of Leo IV. 
— Relation of Pope and Emperor to the Romans — Gibbon's account of the ori- 
gin of the Papal Dominion — Anticipations of Dr. Jarvis. 

Chapter II. — Authority over Princes. 

§ 1. In Matters of Faith and Morals 270 

Pontiff superior to all members of the Church — Gelasius explains the rela- 
tions of the two powers — Means employed against Princes. 
§ 2. In Secular Concerns 

No Civil Power now claimed — Creation of Emperor by Leo III. — British 
Critic — Remarkable avowal of Voltaire. 



275 



Chapter III.— Peace Tribunal 283 

Council of Rheims — Louis the Fat — Princes sought the Pope's Mediation — 
St. Anselm — Genoese and Pisans reconciled — Pope's Power implored by both 
parties — Federal Union — Decree of Lateran — War Sometimes Necessary — 
Truce of God — Improvement in the Lawi of War. 



CONTENTS. 



11 



Chapter IV. — Deposing Power. page 

I 1. Origin of the Power 293 

Abdication of Wamba — Council of Savonieres — Saxons complain to Alexan- 
der II. — Threats of Gregory VII. — Henry IV., seeks his influence to suppress 
Revolt — Crimes of Henry — Compact — Declaration of Independence — Effects 
of Excommunication — Views of Gregory. 

§2. Subsequent Instances 299 

Alexander III. sanctions the Lombard League — Frederick II. deposed in 
Council of Lyons — Act of the Pope — Impeachment of the President. 

I 3. Never formally defined . e 302 

Bull of Boniface VIII. — Definition — Excellence of Sacred Power — Canon of 
Lateran — Acknowledgment of Monarchs. 

§ 4. Deposition of Elizabeth 304 

Object of the Sentence — Armada — Conduct of English Catholics. 

§ 5. Disclaimers 306 

French Clergy in 1682— Cardinal Antonelli— BuU of Pius VII. 

Chapter V. — Papal Sanction 308 

Transfer of French Crown — Settlement of Succession — Sanction of Treaties 
— Invasion of Ireland — Grants to Teutonic Knights — Bull of Alexander VI. — 
Baluffi, Wheaton, Prescott. 

Chapter VI.— Papal Polity 316 

Christianity the Supreme Law — Remarks of Arnold — Church and State — Mr. 
Allies — Ecclesiastical Immunities. — St. Anselm — St. Thomas of Canterbury — 
Principles of Government — Liberty — Tuscan League — Elective Principle. 

Chapter VII. — Crusades 327 

Efforts of Sylvester II. — Gregory VI. — State of the Eastern Christians — 
Peter the Hermit — Councils of Piacenza, Clermont — Discourse of Urban II. — 
League between Greek Emperor and the Crusaders — Defensive Wars — St. Ber- 
nard — Indulgences — Alms — Results of the Crusades. 

Chapter VIII. — Coercion. 

§ 1. Pagans and Jews 342 

Liberty of Conscience vindicated by Tertullian — Ethelbert — Council of To- 
ledo — Innocent IV. — Facts regarding the Jews — Rome their Asylum. 

§ 2. Sectaries 345 

Conduct of Constantine — Right of Property — Imperial Laws — Anti-social 
Principles — Outrages of Circumcellions — Council of Carthage. 

| 3. Crusades against Manicheans 348 

Canons of Toulouse and Lateran — Excesses of Sectaries — Assassination of 
Legate — Instructions of Gregory IX. — Testimony of Voltaire. 

Chapter IX. — Inquisition. 

§ 1. Ancient Tribunal 353 

Council of Verona — Quaesitores fidei sent by Innocent III. — Spirit of Inqui- 
sitors — St. Peter de Castelnau — Civil sanction. 

§ 2. Spanish Inquisition 356 

Ferdinand of Spain — Object — Treasonable designs of Moors — Royal tribunal 
— Opposition of Popes to its establishment in Naples and Milan. 

§3. Mode of Proceeding 358 

Secrecy — Requisites for arrest — Mode of trial — Torture seldom used : long 
abandoned — Searching process — Exaggerations of Llorente. 

£ 4. Roman Inquisition 362 

Congregation of Cardinals — Temporal attributions — Archives seized by the 
French — Heresy regarded as a crime against society. 



12 



CONTENTS. 



PART III. 

LITERARY AND MORAL INFLUENCE. 

PAGE 



Chapter I. — Personal attainments 367 

Gregory the Great misrepresented — Testimony of Agatho — Rome the source 
of letters to the West — Nicholas Breakspere. 

Chapter II. — Measures to promote learning. 

§ 1. Libraries 372 

Popes collectors of books — Vatican library — Nicholas V. 
§ 2. Schools 373 

Schools in England. — Literary accomplishments of ladies — Decrees of Roman 
Councils — Universities. 

Chapter III. — Mediaeval Studies 376 

Divinity — St. Thomas Aquinas — Aristotle — Modern Spirit — Canon law — 
Oriental languages. 

Chapter IV. — Revival of Letters 381 

Dante — Petrarch crowned in the Roman capitol — Poets — Historians — Elo- 
quence — Belles Lettres — Tuscan genius — Testimony of Voltaire — Reformation 
prejudicial to literature — Greek studies — Ippolita Sforza. 

Chapter V. — Science. 

§ 1. Medicine 388 

Salerno — Montpelier — Anatomy — State Physicians — Professorship of Medi- 
cine — Natural History — Minerals — Botany. 

§ 2. Astronomy 390 

Virgil, the Irish missionary — Antipodes — Correction of the calendar by Gre- 
gory XIII. — Meridians — Earth's motion around the sun — Copernicus — Galileo 
— Decree of Roman Inquisition — Cassini — Benedict XIV. 

Chapter VI.— The Arts 395 

Rome renders the arts tributary to religion — Temples and statues — Paint- 
ings — St. Peter's — Landscapes — Miniatures — Engraving on diamonds. 

Chapter VII. — Art of Printing. 

$ 1. Encouragement of Printers 399 

Printers at Rome in 1467 — Activity of the Roman Press. 
§ 2. Restrictions on the Press 402 

Decree of Alexander VI. — Leo X. — Committee appointed by Council of 
Trent — List of prohibited books — Freedom of the Press. 

Chapter VIII. — Moral Influence. 

§1. Civilization 405 

Struggle of the Popes against Feudalism — Civilization of the Heathen — Mis- 
sionaries of Germany — Monastic Institutions — Devotion to the Virgin. 

§ 2. Personal Virtues 40S 

Charity of Roman Bishops — The Martyr Lawrence — Fortitude — Martyrs — 
Pius VI.— Pius VIL— Humility— Celestine V. 

£ 3. Recognised Sanctity 415 

Chapter IX. — Charges against the Popes 417 

Formosus — Stephen — Weight of Luitprand's testimony — Boniface VIII. — 
Conduct before receiving orders — Leo X. and Innocent X. vindicated — Alexan- 
der VI. — Character of Pontiffs as Sovereigns. — Sixtus IV. — Nepotism. 

Catalogue of the Popes 429 



THE PRIMACY. 



CHAPTER I. 

Ifata flf \\t frimaxj. 

The first question which presents . itself to the mind in reference to the 
important subject of the Church, is, whether Christ our Lord formed the 
multitude of His followers into a society, and appointed officers to govern 
them. There are many a&&he present day, who confidently answer in the 
negative, contending that He left it entirely optional with believers in His 
doctrine, to associate under whatsoever form they pleased for the further- 
ance of the great objects of His divine mission.* It may appear strange, 
that this can be maintained by any who admit the Scriptures, which testify, 
so clearly, the appointment by Christ of teachers and rulers, with a per- 
petual commission : but it is scarcely so surprising as that some should 
hold that Christ did organize His Church, and yet deny the main principle 
of her organization, which is unity, by the government of one man, as the 
Scriptures no less clearly attest. The fact that Christ appeared on earth 
as Supreme Teacher, invested with all power and authority, should prepare 
us for a state of Christian society, in which one should hold His place, 
exercising, by delegation, those powers which He inherently possessed. 
That such a social form is best adapted to the great ends of revelation, 
reason itself must convince us, since in order to diffuse and preserve the 
revealed doctrines, it must be of the highest importance to have a chief 
depositary and supreme guardian, from whose chair of instruction the voice 
of truth may issue to the farthest extremities of the earth. The union of 
believers can best be promoted by a central authority divinely established 
and protected; and the perpetuity of the Church, which without unity is 
impossible, can thus be secured. In every form of civil government, how- 
ever limited may be its sphere of action, unity is necessarily sought by 
means of a supreme magistrate, with such limitations of his power as the 
genius of the people may require. The existence of such an officer in the 
Church is the more necessary, inasmuch as she is composed of an endless 
variety of nations, who could not unite in one society, unless by mean:; < f 



* See "The Church Member's Manual," by William Crowell. Boston, 1852. 

2 17 



18 



NATURE OF THE PRIMACY. 



a general head.* She has been often styled "a masterpiece of human 
policy/' because she is so constituted as to resist the many assaults made 
on her from without, and to be uninjured by the conflict of internal ele- 
ments. Her strength and power must be ascribed to her unit}-, which 
conservative and vital principle of her organization she owes to her Divine 
Founder. In leaving her a visible head to govern in His Name, He left 
her the pledge of His own perpetual presence, in virtue of which she repels 
every attack, and remains secure of victory over all her foes. No greater 
evidence of His divinity is needed to confound the unbeliever, than the 
fact that He so framed His Church as to ensure her perpetual duration, 
whilst every human institution, howsoever wisely planned and powerfully 
sustained, after temporary prosperity, more or less rapidly dissolves. Apart 
from positive evidence, we may infer the divine institution of the primacy, 
from the fact that it effectually tends to unite the followers of Christ in an 
unbroken and invincible phalanx. That which makes the Church one, 
and renders her superior to all the efforts of her enemies, is surely not a 
device of human policy, but the institution of Divine Wisdom. 

I would not, however, confine the investigation of the primacy to ab- 
stract reasoning. It is a matter of fact, and therefore to be established 
by positive evidence. The New Testament, as far as it is a record of the 
institutions of Christ, and of their practical development, presents histo- 
rical proof to all who regard it as a purely human composition, and divine 
testimony to such as recognise its inspiration. In an inquiry like the 
present, the obvious meaning of the words, as gathered from the context, 
and illustrated by parallel passages, may be fairly urged in proof ; and 
where discrepancy of sentiment exists in regard to the interpretation, the 
unbiassed judgment of the ancient Christian writers may be justly ap- 
pealed to. The monuments of antiquity, which attest the actual govern- 
ment of the Church in the early ages, should be examined, in order to 
ascertain what was believed and acknowledged to be the authority left by 
Christ for that purpose : since the ancient general and constant persuasion 
of all Christians, on a matter of public polity, and daily practice, must be 
held sacred, according to the celebrated axiom of Vincent of Lerins, which 
is consonant with common sense : Quod semper, quod uhique, quod ab 
omnibus. 

Whosoever assails the actual government of the Church must be pre- 
pared to prove that it is essentially different from the original design, as 
delineated by its Divine Founder.f The presumption is in favor of that 



* The reader will find this, and other arguments, ably presented by the Bishop of 
Louisville, in his admirable " Lectures on the General Evidences of Catholicity." Lec- 
ture x. 

f For the full development of the presumptive argument, and the complete exposure 
of the fallacies of Anglican and Episcopalian theories on this point, I beg to refer to 
" Reasons for Acknowledging the Authority of the Holy Roman See, by Henry Major, 
late a Clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church." Philadelphia, 1846. 



NATURE OF THE PRIMACY. 



19 



which is established, because it is reasonable to suppose that its claims 
had been thoroughly examined before they were acknowledged. If the 
opponent himself had previously recognised the authority, he is still more 
evidently bound to show cause, why he now seeks to discard it, his argu- 
ments being unworthy of attention until all suspicion of improper mo- 
tives is removed. Luther, after loud protestations of unreserved submis- 
sion, rose in revolt against the Papal power, when his resentment had been 
provoked by the condemnation of his errors. Henry VIII. shook off the 
Papal yoke, when it galled him ; the Pontiff refusing to minister to his 
passions, by divorcing his lawful queen, that he might take an adulteress 
to his bed. Long before the appearance of the apostate monk, or of the 
licentious despot, Photius, in the ninth century, assailed the Roman 
primacy ; but only after the Pontiff had resisted his usurpation of the patri- 
archal chair, to the injury of the rightful occupant, Ignatius. The motives 
of these opponents of Rome were unquestionably suspicious. Hence the 
arguments, by which they attempted to disprove the divine origin of the 
primacy, were to be received with caution and distrust. It should be pre- 
sumed that an authority which existed in the ninth, as well as in the six- 
teenth century, and which was opposed by men under the influence of pas- 
sion, was still more ancient, nay, coeval with Christianity itself. If, as 
we go back to the earliest times, we meet instances of its exercise in every 
age, the presumption is strong that it existed then, substantially the same 
as when it was afterward assailed by ambitious, restless, or licentious men. 
In the scarcity of ancient documents, and in the obscurity in which the 
persecutions of the early ages necessarily involved the constitution and, 
internal administration of the Church, it is unreasonable to expect the 
same degree of evidence of the exercise of power by her officers, as in 
later times, of which fuller records are possessed, and in which her action 
was less controlled. " So loDg as the Church," observes Mr. Allies, " was 
engaged in a fierce and unrelenting conflict with the Paganism and despot- 
ism of the empire, she could hardly exhibit to the world her complete 
outward organization."* It is reasonable to infer that her government 
was in substance the same previously, as in the fifth and fourth ages, unless 
there be conclusive evidence to the contrary. Those who deny the primacy 
to be an original principle of Church organization, in vain object the in- 
sufficiency of the proofs of its operation in the early ages. In order to 
meet the abundant evidence of its powerful activity at a subsequent period, 
they should show the time in which it was first established, the means used 
for its introduction, and explain how it happened that it met with no op- 
position, or that such opposition was unsuccessful. 

Some of the Pontifical acts which I shall have occasion to enumerate, 
might be referred to mere patriarchal jurisdiction; but the attentive reader 



* " The Church of England Cleared from the Charge of Schism, by Thomas William 
Allies, Rector of Launton, Oxon./' p. 15. 



20 



NATURE OF THE PRIMACY. 



will perceive, that they all presuppose the divine institution of the prima- 
cy, and the authority of the Bishop of Rome as derived from St. Peter. 
The proofs here furnished cannot then be eluded, merely by saying, that 
many of them are explicable on the patriarchal theory : for we must exa- 
mine whether the Pontiffs rested their claims on this ground, or on the 
divine commission ; and whether the bishops submitted to them on prin- 
ciples of ecclesiastical economy, or in obedience to a divine mandate, which 
they believed to be delivered in the Gospel. To invent a theory, is not 
sufficient • we must inquire into a fact, whether the power exercised by the 
Bishop of Rorue throughout the "Western patriarchate, as well as in the 
East, was professedly grounded on the commission given to the apostle, 
whose chair he occupied. If continual reference be made to this commis- 
sion in all the documents which have come down from those times, it 
is in vain to say that the same acts might have been performed in virtue 
of conventional arrangements, since they actually proceeded from a higher 
source. 

The attempt is vainly made to distinguish the primacy from the supre- 
macy, and by the admission of the former to elude the evidences by which 
the claims of the Roman Pontiff are supported. Primacy of jurisdiction 
implies supremacy, since it is a real governing power, extending over the 
whole Church, as appears from the definition of the Council of Florence : 
" TVe define that the holy Apostolic See and Roman Pontiff holds the 
primacy throughout the entire world, and that the said Roman Pontiff is the 
successor of the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, and is the true 
vicar of Christ, and the head of the whole Church, and father and teacher 
of all Christians; and that to him, in the person of blessed Peter, full 
power was given by our Lord Jesus Christ to feed, rule and govern the 
Universal Church, as is also contained in the acts of oecumenical councils 
and in the sacred canons."* 

Those who live under republican institutions are naturally prejudiced 
against an authority which resembles a monarchy, inasmuch as one man, 
as vicegerent of Christ, governs the Universal Church. I will not in- 
sist here on the fact that he is an elective ruler, chosen from the body 
of cardinals, whose office is not hereditary, but the reward of distin- 
guished merit ; neither will I dwell on the limitations of pontifical power 
arising from the nature of the doctrines and laws of Christ, of which His 
earthly representative cannot change an iota ; still less will I plead the 
practical limitations which may arise from canonical enactments, national 
usages, and established precedents. A power in things spiritual which 
affects conscience alone, cannot be arbitrary and despotic, being an ema- 
nation from the power of Christ, and dependent for its successful exercise on 
the voluntary submission of those whom it regards. It is necessary, how- 
ever, to approach the examination of this subject with a mind prepared 



•• Coze, Flor., cvlla:. xsii., p. C J 55. V, is, col. Hard. 



% 

NATURE OF THE PRIMACY. 



21 



to embrace the authority which Christ has established, without regard to 
our political prejudices, or national predilections. We are not allowed to 
model His Church according to our views j we must accept her as she was 
framed by Him, who has done all things well, and whose providence 
watches over His institutions, that they may be channels of grace and 
blessing to mankind. I shall not attempt to present any qualified view 
of pontifical power calculated to win popular favor, or hesitate to admit the 
rather invidious terms by which it is commonly designated. Let the con- 
stitution of the Church be styled monarchical j provided it be well under- 
stood that Christ is the sovereign, whose mild authority must be reflected 
in the government of Hi3 earthly representative. Let her aristocratic 
character be admitted; but with the just observation, that in her, birth or 
wealth gives no title of nobility, since her princes are chosen indiscrimi- 
nately from all classes, wherever virtue finds votaries. Even Toltaire 
remarks, that " the Koman Church has always enjoyed the advantage of 
rewarding merit with honors which are elsewhere given to birth."* It 
would be easy to show what elements of democracy are contained within 
her : but a divine institution needs not be supported by an appeal to 
popular prejudice. To borrow the words of James Bernard Clinch, a 
learned member of the Irish bar in the early part of this century : 
" Whatever be the authority which exists in the Christian system, that 
authority, in its application, must be as different from the execution of 
worldly force as it is superior in its origin. To seek for parallels 
between the genuine idea of Christian polity, and the several species of 
human organization of force, I consider to be extreme absurdity. To 
defend the government of the Church as a pure monarchic, or as an aristo- 
cratic, or as a republican system, or as resulting from any temperament 
of these three forms, must necessarily lead into error; and so far, must 
estrange the mind from the whole of the salutary and everlasting purposes 
of the Gospel, which, except in the Catholic Church, are not known, or 
cannot be realized. If it were lawful to circumscribe the Christian state 
by any general name, it might more aptly be called a federal system, be- 
cause its essential compact is unity. There is no monarchy in the Chris- 
tian Church but that of Christ; there is no aristocracy; there is no power 
of the commons. There are ministries and ofiices distinct, and there are 
subjects amenable to these ofiices. But the highest magistrate of spiritual 
things can only be the next representative of Christ for Christians ; and 
Christ has declared that He came not to have servitude performed unto 
Himself, but to perform it, and to lay down His life as a ransom for 
multitudes."t 



* * L'Eglise Romaine a toujours eu cet avantage de pouYoir dormer au merite ce qu'ail- 
lettrs on donne a la naissanee." Voltaire, Essai sur l'Histoire Generate. Histoire de 
l'Empereur Henri Y. 

f Letters on Church Government, by J. B. Clinch, Barrister at Law, Dublin, 1815. 



2-2 



NATURE OF THE PRIMACY. 



By whatsoever appellation we may designate the constitution of the 
Church, our attachment to our country and its institutions will not be 
affected by it, since there is an immense difference between things human 
and divine. As we must not suffer our political predilections to prejudice 
us against the form of government which Christ our Lord has established 
in his Church, so we need not seek to assimilate civil to ecclesiastical 
polity. It has been well observed by Ranke. that "this religious system 
has no inherent or necessary affinity to one form of government more than 
to another."* " The Christian religion/' says Count de St. Priest, " which 
has existed for near two thousand years, is not indissolubly attached to 
any political form. Under the shadow of absolute thrones or of limited 
monarchies — on the borders of the republican lake of William Tell — in 
America, which is still more republican, it nourishes as an imperishable 
plant, nourished by the juices of earth, and refreshed by the waters of 
heaven. It is not a local, but a universal religion. "f So far back as the 
fifth century, St. Augustin declared the support which the Church lends 
to every lawful authority : " This heavenly society," he says, " does not 
hesitate to obey the laws of the temporal powers which regulate the things 

appertaining to our mortal life Whilst sojourning on earth, the 

Church gathers her citizens from all nations, and forms her pilgrim host of 
men of every tongue. She cares not for the diversity of laws and usages 
which are directed to the attainment or maintenance of peace : she annuls 
or destroys none of them, but, on the contrary, she adopts and observes 
them ; since although they differ in various nations, they are all directed 
to one and the same end, namely, public order and tranquillity ; provided 
they do not clash with religion, which teaches us to worship the one su- 
preme and true God." J 

The alleged or real abuses of papal power form no just ground of objec- 
tion to its admission, since every divine institution is liable to be abused 
by human frailty. The inquirer after truth should not allow his mind to 
be pre-occupied with frightful images of excesses committed by popes, 
either in their public administration or in their private conduct : he should 
first of all examine, whether their authority is from Christ. On calm in- 
vestigation, he will find that the grossest exaggerations have been indulged 
in by their traducers, whilst the benefits which they bestowed on the Chris- 
tian world have been kept out of view. The contributions, which under 
the name of Peter's pence, or on any other score, were made for the sup- 
port of the pontifical government, have been designated extortions, with- 
out any regard to their justice and necessity; whilst the unbounded charities 
of the popes, and their immense expenditures for the general interests of 
Christendom, are forgotten. The civil commotions and wars, which some- 



* History of the Popes, vol. i. L vi. £ i. p. 407. 

f Histoire de la Royaute par le Cte Alexis de Saint Priest, L ii. p. 92. 
J De Civ. Dei, 1. xix. c. xvii. 



NATURE OF THE PRIMACY. 



23 



times followed the exercise of papal power, are represented as its necessary re- 
sults j whilst the enormity of the evils, which the pontiffs sought to remedy, 
is lost sight of, and the criminality of the immediate actors who provoked 
this severity is apparently unnoticed. In investigating the fact, whether 
Christ has left in His stead a ruler of His Church on earth, we should con- 
fine ourselves to scriptural testimonies, and to the monuments of Christian 
antiquity. Let these be consulted, and there can be no doubt that the 
result will be entire conviction of the divine institution of the primacy. 
The importance of the investigation is deeply felt at this day by the many 
estimable individuals, who, with anxious minds, are struggling to disen- 
thral themselves from error and schism. Mr. Allies rightly said: The 
whole question now " turns upon the papal supremacy, as at present 
claimed, being of divine right or not. If it be, then have we nothing else 
to do, on peril of our salvation, but submit ourselves to the authority of 
Rome."* 



* The Church of England Cleared from the Charge of Schism. Advertisement. 



CHAPTER II. 



f muse af % |ritetg. 

Our Divine Redeemer was wont to prepare men for His chief institu- 
tions by a previous declaration of His intentions. Before He made a formal 
promise to bestow the power of governing His Church, He changed the 
name of the disciple, who was to exercise it j and He subsequently declared 
the import of the name, and the authority of the office. When Simon was 
presented to him by his brother Andrew, He called him Cephas,* a Syro- 
chaldaic term, equivalent to the Creek ITsrpoc, that is, Peter, which signi- 
fies Rock. Andrew "brought him to Jesus, and Jesus looking upon him, 
said : Thou art Simon the son of J ona : thou shalt be called Cephas : 
which is interpreted Peter, "f It does not appear that our Lord at that 
time declared the reason why He so called him : which, however, He after- 
wards most emphatically signified. Although Andrew had the happiness 
of discovering Christ before him, Peter soon enjoyed a marked precedency, 
so as to be designated the first by the evangelist St. Matthew, in the 
enumeration of the apostles. " Now the names of the twelve apostles are 
these : The first Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother.";); 
Then follow the names of the others, with their commission to preach to 
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. It is not by mere accident that 
Peter is here placed first, since he occupies the same place in all the lists 
given by the sacred writers : which is the more remarkable inasmuch as 
the order of the names of the other apostles varies, with the exception of 
Judas, who, on account of his perfidy, is always placed last. St. Matthew, 
moreover, expressly designates him the first : 6 Ttpwroq, which plainly 
marks him as leader and chief. 

We cannot suppose that Peter is put first on account of the excellence of 
his personal qualities, when we remember his weakness in the hour of tempta- 
tion. Whilst our Lord was on earth, He alone was head of His Church, 
and Peter, although he was leader, had not authority over his brethren. 
At that time his precedency was rather of order, or rank, than of jurisdic- 
tion and government ; but it was wisely so ordained, that he might be 
thus prepared for the high office to which he was to be elevated. In this 
sense the observation of Barrow may be admitted : " Constantly in all the 
catalogues of the apostles, St. Peter's name is set in the front; and when 



* It is pronounced in Syriac Kipha, or Kipho : in Chaldaic f ] , ^j in Hebrew r p- 
f John i. 42. j Matt. x. 2. 

24 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



25 



actions are reported in which he was concerned jointly with others, he is 
usually mentioned first, which seemeth not done without careful design, or 
special reason. Upon such grounds it may be reasonable to allow St. Peter 
a primacy of order."* I cannot, however, agree with him, that this 
primacy was " such a one as the ringleader hath in a dance !" Neither 
can I admit that primatial authority was not afterwards conferred on him ; 
since this is affirmed, not on the mere ground of this order of names, which, 
however, furnishes no slight presumptive evidence, but on strong and 
positive testimonies of Scripture. 

In the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew, we learn that "Jesus came into 
the confines of Cesarea Philippi : and He asked His disciples saying : Who 
do men say that the Son of Man is ? And they said : Some John the Bap- 
tist, and others Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets." Our 
Lord's interrogation was not an idle inquiry, proceeding from curiosity to 
ascertain the current opinions of men, for Jesus "knew all men," and 
" He needed not that any man should give testimony of man : for He 
knew what was in man.""j* He asks, in order to afford an opportunity to 
Simon to state the various human conjectures, that were prevalent concern- 
ing His person, and to declare aloud his own faith. 

On the question being put as to the belief of the apostles themselves, 
concerning him, Peter answered without hesitation : " Thou art Christ, 
the Son of the living God." This explicit declaration of the divinity of 
Jesus, was followed by a confirmation, on His part, of the name previously 
given to Simon, and by the exposition of its mysterious meaning, and of 
the high office with which it was connected : " Jesus answering said to him : 
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona : because flesh and blood hath not re- 
vealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee, 
that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church ; and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it 
shall be bound also in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it 
shall be loosed also in heaven. "J Never was the language of Christ more 
clear and emphatic. Simon confessed Him to be the Son of God, not in the 
general sense of this appellation, as given to every just man, for this would 
have called forth no extraordinary praise, but as the natural and true Son of 
His Eternal Father, by a communication to Him of the Divine Nature, by 
an ineffable generation. Jesus declares Simon blessed for this profession 
of faith in His divinity, since mortal man could not have suggested it, 
but God alone. Thus endowed by the Father with divine faith in the in- 
carnate Son of G-od, Simon becomes a fit instrument in His hands for the 
building of His Church, a secure foundation whereon it may rest. His 
name is confirmed : " I say to thee, that thou art Peter." As Jacob was 



* A Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy, by Isaac Barrow, D. D., Supposition 1, n. 5. 
f John ii. 24. + Matt. xvi. 15-20. 



26 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



called Israel, because in the mysterious conflict he prevailed over the angel 
of G-od ; — as Abram was called Abraham, because chosen to be the father 
of a countless multitude; — so Simon is called Cephas, or Peter, because 
made, by divine grace, a rock of faith. Nor is the firmness of his faith a 
mere personal endowment; he is to become the foundation-stone of the 
Church of Christ : " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My 
Church that is : s thou art a rock, and upon this rock i will 
build MY Church.* The strength of this rock — its immovable firmness 
— is declared by the impregnable character of the Church which is to be 
built on it : " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Because 
Christ builds on a rock, the powers of darkness cannot overcome His 
Church. He is the wise man, who chooses a solid foundation for His build- 
ing. " The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they 
beat upon that house, and it fell not ; for it was founded upon a rock/'f 
The strength of the building is ascribed to the solidity of the foundation. 
Christ in choosing Simon for the foundation of His Church, gives him 
strength and firmness, by which the building itself is made secure. Peter 
becomes the support of the Church, which, like a strong fortress, is in vain 
assailed by adverse powers. Such is the import of the name given by 
Christ to Simon ; such is the close and necessary relation of Peter to the 
Church. 

Some who seek to elude the obvious force of the language of our Saviour, 
contend that Peter is called a rock for the firmness of his personal faith, and 
is spoken of as the foundation of the Church, because he was the first to pro- 
fess the divinity of Christ, and because all who thenceforward acknowledged 
the same truth, were added to and built on him as a foundation. This, 
however, by no means corresponds with the words of our Redeemer. Peter 
is called a rock, not as a professor of the faith, but to reward its profession. 
Because he has made this divinely inspired profession, Christ declares that 
he is a rock, on which He will build His Church. It is fair to give to a 
figurative expression the force which its use by the same writer, or speaker, 
authorizes. Our Lord having used the similitude of a house built on a 
rock, to illustrate the wisdom of the man who builds his hopes of salvation 
on the practice of the divine lessons, as on a solid foundation, we must 
regard the rock as the image of the solidity and strength of the founda- 
tion, rather than as expressive of a mere commencement. The unfailing 
support of the building is the idea which the rock suggests. 

This observation equally shows the futility of the attempt to explain 
this figure as employed merely to mark the instrumentality of Peter in 
admitting Jews and Gentiles to the Church, by proclaiming the resurrec- 



* In English, the force of the allusion is not perceived, but in French it is preserved : 
"Tu es Pierre, et sur cette pierre je batirai mon eglise." The Greek, Latin, Italian, and 
Spanish, imperfectly exhibit it. The German, as well as the English, conceals it. 

f Matt. via. 25. 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



27 



tion to the assembled multitude on the day of Pentecost, and exhorting 
them to receive baptism, and by ordering Cornelius and his family to be 
baptized.* The figure obviously represents strength, immobility, and con- 
sequent support afforded to the building. Peter, as a rock of strength, is 
placed by the Divine Architect in the foundation, in order that the Church 
may stand for ever, despite of the storms of persecution and temptation, 
and of all the assaults of the infernal powers. 

Many, with a triumphant air, affirm that the rock on which Christ pro- 
mised to build His Church, is no other than Christ Himself, the rock of 
ages : but they plainly violate all rules of just interpretation. Since 
Cephas signifies rock, and Christ says to Simon : " Thou art Cephas, and 
upon this rock I will build My Church/' the relative leaves no room 
for ambiguity. Besides, there would be a confusion of metaphors and 
ideas, if Christ should, in the same breath, speak of Himself as builder 
and foundation. Both figures may be applied to Him separately, under 
different points of view ; but it would be incongruous, not to say absurd, 
to apply both at one and the same time. G-od is frequently called a rock, 
on account of his insuperable and everlasting power j Christ is styled the 
rock of ages, because He is at all times the strength and refuge of all who 
flee to Him. He is the spiritual rock, from which the waters of salvation 
issue, and of which the material rock of the desert was a type. Thus St. 
Paul, speaking of the Israelites, says, that " they all drank of the spiritual 
rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ f'f but it is absurd to 
infer hence that the rock spoken of by Christ, when He said, " upon this 
rock I will build My Church/' is Christ Himself !t 

The attempt to explain "this rock" of Christ is by no means counte- 
nanced by the difference of gender of the words in the text : ah el IJirpoq, 
xai &t) rauTT) xr t -(-pa. Peter is called IHrpoq, because the Greeks never 
apply a feminine noun to a man, except in derision :§ the rock is called 
izizpa, because this term more properly designates a rock, although the 

* Bishop Pearson says : " It will be necessary to take notice, that our Saviour, speaking 
of it, (the Church,) mentioneth it as that which then was not, but afterwards was to be : as 
when he spake unto the great Apostle : ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
my Church but when he ascended into heaven, and the Holy Ghost came down, when 
Peter had converted three thousand souls, which were added to the hundred and twenty 
disciples, then was there a Church, (Am) that built upon Peter, according to our 
Saviour's promise,) for after that we read : 'The Lord added to the Church daily such as 
should be saved.'" — Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Article IX., p. 506. 

f 1 Cor. x. 4. 

j The rule prescribed by the Protestant critic, Gerard, should here be attended to, 456 : 
"Every term should be considered as it stands, in the proposition of which it makes a part, 
and explained, not by itself, but so as to bring out the real sense of that whole proposition." 
He shows the violation of this rule by an Antinomian, who should understand the rock on 
which the wise man builds his house, Matt. vii. 24, to be Christ, the rock of ages. The 
rule is equally violated, when the rock, of which Christ speaks, Matt. xvi. IS, is understood 
to be Himself. See Gerard's Institutes, p. 134. 

g Synopsis Critic, in locum. 



28 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



other term is equivalent. The relative plainly identifies the subject, and 
excludes all distinction, as the language in which our Saviour spoke has 
the same word in both places.* Bloomfield, an Anglican commentator, ob- 
serves that every modern expositor of note has abandoned the distinction 
between Peter and rock as untenable.")" Bishop Marsh, quoted by him, 
says, that " it would be a desperate undertaking to prove that Christ meant 
any other person than Peter. "J John George Rosenmuller, a German inter- 
preter, coincides in this critical judgment : " The rock," says he, " is neither 
the confession of Peter, nor Christ, pointing out Himself by His finger, or 
by a shake of the head, (which interpretations the context does not admit,) 
but Peter himself. The Lord, speaking in Syriac, used no diversity of 
name, but in both places said Cephas, as the French word pierre is said 
both of a proper and appellative noun. He pointed out Peter, therefore, 
either by his finger, or nod ; for that gesture suited His purpose, to ex- 
plain the reason of giving him this name. So it is said of Abraham : 
* Thy name shall be Abraham, because I have made thee father of many 
nations of Jacob : { Israel shall be thy name, for thou actest as a prince 
with angels and men.' So Christ says: 'Thou art called by Me Peter, 
because thou wilt be as a rock.' And He promises that He will build 
His Church on Peter. Allusion is made to the custom prevailing in 
Palestine, of building houses that are exposed to floods and whirlwinds, 
on a rocky soil, that they may be able to resist the violence of waters and 
winds. Matt. vii. 24, 25. ' Therefore whosoever thinks of building a 
durable house, should above all look around for a rock, or firm ground : 
the rock is the first thing whence the work is to be begun.' 

In " Gerard's Institutes of Biblical Criticism" is contained the following 



* The Syriac version of the New Testament is deservedly of high repute, on account 
of its early date, and of the near affinity between the Syriac language and the Syro- 
Chaldaic, which our Lord used, and in which, according to the received opinion, St. 
Matthew wrote his Gospel. In this version, the words "Peter" and "rock" are expressed 
by the same characters : 

Anath Chipha, vehull hada chipha. 

A most ancient Chaldee manuscript of St. Matthew's Gospel, in the collection formerly 
belonging to Cardinal Barberini, written in characters long obsolete, and professing to 
have been made in Mesopotamia in the year 330, uses but one word to express Peter and 
the rock, scinha. See the learned treatise of Ecchelensis, a Maronite, de origine nominis 
Papa;, &c. Romse, MDCLX. 

In the Arabic version, given in the London Polyglot, the same term, Alsachra, is used 
in both places. Another Arabic version employs a different term, Alsapha, but in both 
places alike. 

The Persian version is rendered by "Walton : Thou art the rock (i. e. stone) of My reli- 
gion, and on thee the foundation of My Church shall be laid, 
f In locum. 

J Comparative View. App. p. 217. i 

\ Scholia in Novum Test, torn. i. p. 336. Norumb. an. 1815. 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



29 



just observation — Canon 511 : " The most obvious and natural sense is to 
be set aside only when it is absolutely contradictory to something plainly 
taught in Scripture." He then remarks, that " the opposite way has been 
taken by all sects and quoting the 18th verse of the 16th chapter of St. 
Matthew, observes : " Building on Peter is explained, by some, as con- 
trary to the faith that Christ is the only foundation, (1 Cor. iii. 2,) and as 
favoring the succession of Peter and his successors ; but the connection 
shows that PETER IS HERE PLAINLY MEANT." This avowal 
loses nothing of its importance from the attempt to confine it to Peter to 
the exclusion of his successors, in conformity with the prejudices and in- 
terests of Protestantism. 

Mr. Thompson, of Glasgow, in his 31onatessaron, on this text, gives 
three interpretations. He thinks the two first unfounded, and thus quotes 
the third : " The third opinion is, that both the words Tzerpoq and r.trpa are 
here used as appellations of the apostle ; and, consequently, Peter was the 
rock on which Christ said His Church should be built. To this the con- 
nection and scope of the passage agree. There seems to be something 
forced in every other construction, and an inaptitude in the language and 
figure of the text in every attempt to construct the words otherwise. Pro- 
testants have betrayed unnecessary fears, and have, therefore, used all the 
HARDIHOOD of LAWLESS CRITICISM in their attempts to reason 
away the Catholic interpretation."* This perversion of Scripture, to suit 
party purposes, is deeply to be deplored. Those who have made the hu- 
miliating acknowledgments which I have placed under the eyes of the 
reader, have not failed to torture the text after their own fashion, to 
eschew the consequences of their involuntary concessions. 

The apostle, addressing the Corinthians whom he had brought to the 
knowledge of Christian faith says : " You are God's building. According 
to the grace of God that is given me, as a wise architect, I have laid the 
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed 
how he buildeth thereupon. For no man can lay another foundation, but 
that which is laid — which is Christ Jesus. "f These words are often al- 
leged to show that Christ Himself is the fundamental rock on which the 
Church is built : but the meaning of the apostle manifestly is, that Christ 
— His doctrine and law — His atonement and grace — are the only founda- 
tion on which our hopes for salvation can rest ; nor is there salvation in 
any other; for " there is no other name under heaven given to men where- 
by we must be saved." J This does not exclude the relation of Peter to 
the Church as established by Christ Himself, since he is the rock placed 
by the hands of the Divine Architect, from Whom his strength is wholly 
derived. It would indeed be impious to call Peter the foundation, inde- 
pendently of Christ ; his office being merely ministerial and instrumental. 
The faithful are said to be " built upon the foundation of the apostles 



* Bait. edit. p. 194. 



f 1 Cor. iii. 9. 



% Acts iv. 12. 



30 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone."* Thus 
it is clear, that the apostles and prophets may be represented under 
the image of the foundation, without any disparagement to the authority 
of Christ, since the preaching of the apostles and the predictions of the 
prophets lead men to Him. They are ministers, agents, heralds of the 
Great King. So may the term be applied to Peter in a special sense, as 
being His chief minister and representative, without detracting from His 
sovereignty. Bloomfield avows that the expression as applied to Peter is 
easily reconcilable with the application of it to Christ, "since the two ex- 
pressions are employed in two very different senses. "f St. Leo the 
Great, who filled the chair of St. Peter in the middle of the fifth century, 
beautifully exhibits the harmony of the sacred texts, whilst he paraphrases 
the address of Christ to Peter : " As my Father has manifested My divinity 
to thee, I make known to thee thy excellency : for thou art Peter, that 
is, as I am the inviolable rock, the corner-stone, who make both one, the 
foundation other than which no one can lay — nevertheless, thou also art a 
rock, because thou art strengthened by My power, so that those things 
which belong to Me by nature, are common to thee with Me by participa- 
tion. "J 

The figure of the keys of the kingdom, which our Lord adds, confirms 
and develops the idea of power and authority contained in the preceding 
metaphor : " I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and 
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, it shall be bound also in heaven, and 
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." 
The keys are the known symbol of authority. Of Eliacim, who was to be 
substituted to Sobna in the high-priesthood, it is said : " I will lay the 
key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and 
none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open."§ The key was 
hung on the shoulder, in token of power, on which account it is said of 
Christ, "the government is upon his shoulder." || Potter, Protestant 
archbishop of Canterbury, says : " Our Lord received from God the keys 
of heaven ; and by virtue of this grant, had power to remit sins on earth : 
the same keys, with the power which accompanied them, were first pro- 
mised to Peter, as the foreman of the apostolic college."^" Since our Lord 
communicated to Peter the keys which He Himself received from the Fa- 
ther, supreme power was clearly delegated by Him, as may be gathered 
from the same writer. " Our blessed Lord, as the king of this household, 
who has the supreme power to admit and exclude whomsoever He pleaseth, 

* Eph. ii. 20. f In Matt. xvi. 18, 19. 

J Serm. iv. de assumpt. sua ad Pontificatum. 

§ Isaiah xxii. 22. "As to the expression 'the keys/ it may also refer to the power and 
authority for the said work; especially as a key was anciently a usual symbol of authority, 
and presenting with a key was a common form of investing with authority, insomuch that 
it was afterwards worn as a badge of office." — 'Bloomfield, in locum. 

[| Isaiah ix. 6. \ On Church Government, p. 60. 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 31 



is said to have the keys of David. The supreme power of the keys, that 
is, the authority of admitting and excluding, belongs to Christ, the King ; 
but the same is exercised by His apostles and their successors, whom He 
has appointed to govern the Church, as His stewards, or vicegerents."* 
The force of the symbol is here admitted, although an attempt is vainly 
made to render common to all the apostles the power which was distinctly 
given to Peter alone : "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven." In the New Testament the kingdom of heaven generally denotes 
the Church of Christ, which is heavenly in its origin, principles and tend- 
ency. To give the keys of this kingdom is to communicate supreme 
power — to make Peter His special vicegerent. To loose and to bind is the 
exercise of that power, but the keys signify a pre-eminent power of bind- 
ing and loosing. The remission of sins or their retention may be effected 
in virtue of it, whilst other acts likewise are included in this broad com- 
mission. To resolve the difficulties of the law, and decide religious con- 
troversies, to enact laws binding the members of the Church, and to dis- 
pense from their observance, to inflict censures on the refractory, and release 
the penitent from their bonds, may all be signified by these terms. A 
similar power of binding and loosing was afterwards promised to all the 
apostles ; but, not without special design, it was promised to Peter first, 
and alone, that his high authority might be manifested. 

These sublime promises are not weakened by the rebuke given on the 
same occasion, to Peter, for opposing the divine counsels. Our Lord 
charged His disciples to tell no one that He was the Christ ; and in order to 
check their exultation, He disclosed to them His approaching death : but 
Peter could not bear the thought of the sufferings of his Divine Master : 
" Lord, (he said,) be it far from Thee : this shall not be unto Thee. But 
He, turning, said to Peter : Go after me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto 
me : because thou dost not relish the things that are of God, but the 
things that are of men.""!" By this severe reproof, our Lord would teach 
us, that the humiliating mystery of His sufferings must be adored with the 
same faith wherewith His glory is believed. Simon was blessed in the 
divinely inspired faith by which he acknowledged Christ to be the Son of 
God ; but he became a Satan, that is, according to the literal force of the 
term, an adversary, when he opposed the divine counsel for the redemp- 
tion of mankind, by the sufferings and death of his Lord. The promise 
made to him was not recalled, although his earthly views were corrected 
and reproved. The enemies of the primacy have, however, availed them- 
selves of the popular acceptation of the term Satan, to obscure the eulogy 
previously pronounced, and the promise made to Peter. Severe as the re- 
proof undoubtedly is, it does not suppose any sin on the part of the apostle, 
but a human error of judgment, proceeding from the ardor of his affection, 
and his lively faith in the divinity of Christ. 



* On Church Government, p. 300. 



f Matt. xvi. 22. 



82 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



In the solemn circumstance of the approaching passion of Christ, the 
apostles did not cease to indulge the petty rivalry and jealousy, which, 
during their attendance on Him, they had often manifested. He had had 
occasion more than once to rebuke them for their disputes about supe- 
riority, and yet they were still contending which of them was the greatest. 
The many marks of His special favor to Peter, the position of leader which 
this apostle uniformly occupied, and the promise made to him especially, 
seemed to leave no room for doubting; but the tender love shown to John, 
and the kindness and affection exhibited to all, led them to question, 
whether the actual headship of Peter, or the promised office, rendered him 
absolutely greater than his brethren. Christ had, on a former occasion, 
brought forward a child to insinuate humility, and stimulate the apostles 
to its exercise, by the hope of heavenly exaltation ;* in this instance He 
contrasts the spirit which should animate them, with the domineering 
pride of earthly princes, and offers Himself as the model which they should 
copy. " The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they that have 
power over them, are called beneficent. But you not so : but he who is the 
greatest among you, let him be as the least : and he that is the leader, as 
he that serveth? For which is greater, he that sitteth at table, or he 
that serveth ? Is not he that sitteth at table ? but I am in the midst of 
you as he that serveth. "f He will not have them act in the lordly spirit 
of the rulers of this world, or content themselves with nattering titles. 
Plainly recognising the difference of rank among them, He wishes the 
greatest to sustain his dignity by the humility of his deportment, even as 
He had condescended to act as their servant. He then proceeds to intimate 
the high dignity of all, but marks in express terms the special duty and 
prerogative of Peter : " You are they who have continued with Me in My 
temptations : And I dispose J to you, as My Father hath disposed to Me. a 
kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table, and may sit upon 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Thus, in return for their 
fidelity and attachment He bestows on them a kingdom, even as His Fa- 
that had made Him King. His kingdom is not, indeed, of this world, but 
of an order far more sublime, according to which the apostles are made 
priests and kings to their God, partaking of the mysterious banquet, and 
sitting on thrones of judgment. These honors are common to all: to 
Peter peculiar privileges are promised. Satan sought to overthrow their 
thrones and altars, to sift them, even as the wheat is winnowed, and to cast 
them away as chaff to the wind. In the impenetrable but just counsels 
of the Deity, he is suffered to accomplish his wishes in some degree : but 
Christ interposes with His Father to rescue the throne of Peter, and 
through him to secure all from ruin. " And the Lord said : Simon, Simon, 



* Luke ix. 48. 

f Luke xxii. 25-28. See also Matt. xx. 25. 
j Assign, or grant. 



PROMISE OF THE PRIMACY. 



33 



behold, Satan hath desired to have you,* that he may sift you as wheat : 

but I HAVE PRATED FOR THEEf THAT THY FAITH FAIL NOT : AND THOU, 
BEING ONCE CONVERTED,! CONFIRM THY BRETHREN. "§ He had just 

spoken of the kingdom and thrones of the apostles : He now discloses the 
dark designs of hell against them : and addressing Peter especially, em- 
phatically assures him, that He had prayed for him in particular, that his 
faith might not fail. Against him the powers of hell shall not prevail, 
since they cannot prevail against the Church founded on him. The prayer 
of Christ is specially offered up for him, as the head of his brethren, whom 
He charges him to confirm in that faith which cannot fail. 

The subsequent fall of Peter is often objected as a proof that he was 
not the head of the Church; which is true of that time, since although 
the promise of Christ had been made, and His prayer offered up, the office 
of chief pastor had not yet been instituted. It was only after His resur- 
rection that our Lord, being about to withdraw His visible presence, gave 
to Peter the charge of His lambs and sheep. The weakness of one chosen 
for so high an office must teach us, not to regard in the ministers of Christ, 
especially in His Vicar, their individual qualities, but the divine authority 
which they exercise, that our trust may be not in man, but in God. Divine 
mercy pardoned Peter the base denial of his 3Iaster : divine goodness raised 
him to the highest dignity : divine power was employed to endow him, a frail 
and sinful man, with an immovable firmness in faith, that, like a rock, he 
might support the everlasting fabric of the Church. 



* t'fta,-. The English reader, accustomed to the use of the plural pronoun for the sin- 
gular, is apt not to advert to its force here as embracing all the apostles, 
j Ylspl cov. Special prayer was offered for Peter. 

j This appears to be a Hebraism, denoting the repetition of an action. See Ps. lxxxvi. 7= 
As Christ prayed for Peter that his faith might not fail, He Trilled likewise that Peter on 
his part should strengthen his brethren by his exhortations, prayers and example. Mal- 
donat, Genebrard, and other Catholic interpreters give this meaning, which is strongly 
supported by Grotius, who insists that conversion from sin cannot be meant, since Christ 
had not yet intimated the fall of Peter. Passaglia, and after him Allies, maintain this in- 
terpretation ; which is also set forth by Cornelius a Lapide and Rosenmiiller, although these 
present at the same time the more common explanation, conformable to the popular ac- 
ceptation of the phrase. The ancient Syriac version may be rendered: "turn thou in 
season ;" and may be understood of the act of a superior looking towards those under his 
charge to direct and animate them. The same verb is used in the Syriac for the turning 
of Magdalen toward Christ in the garden, (John xx. li,) and the turning of Peter toward 
John, (lb. xxi. 20.) 

I Luke xxii. 31, 32. 



8 



CHAPTER III. 



The ancient writers of the Church, who are styled Fathers, are de- 
servedly regarded with veneration for their piety, learning, and zeal. 
From an early period of the revolutionary career of Luther, he professed 
an utter disregard for their opinions ; in which he was followed by almost 
all the sectaries of the sixteenth and succeeding centuries : but " the 
Church of England" as the English Establishment is styled, professed a 
high veneration for them, notwithstanding the efforts of Middleton and 
others to lessen their authority. At the present day they are looked up to 
with increased reverence, especially by those who participate in the senti- 
ments of Dr. Pusey, whilst they are necessarily depreciated by such Protest- 
ants as wish to retain an appearance of consistency. In the Catholic 
Church, the unanimous testimony of the Fathers, in favor of a doctrine, is 
conclusive evidence of divine tradition ) and their concordant exposition 
of a text of Scripture is a certain guide to its true meaning : but their in- 
dividual opinions, however worthy of respectful consideration, impose no 
restraint on our judgment, unless the Church by adopting them add the 
seal of her authority. In interpreting the Scripture they frequently turned 
aside from the literal meaning, especially where this was obvious, and had 
recourse to moral applications, or allegorical expositions, exercising con- 
siderable ingenuity in applying the divine words to matters of daily prac- 
tice, or endeavoring to discover, under the surface of the letter, some re- 
ference or allusion to the great mysteries which are elsewhere explicitly 
propounded. This however, should give greater weight to their testimony, 
when they professedly declare the literal meaning of the sacred text, es- 
pecially in matters which were exemplified in the government and public 
usage of the Church. Consequently, their interpretation of the promise 
recorded in Matthew, cannot fail to arrest the earnest attention of the 
reader. 

Tertullian, a priest of the Church of Carthage, at the close of the 

second century, is classed among the Fathers, although by his fall into the 

errors of Montanus in the latter part of his career, he forfeited the glory 

which he had acquired by his celebrated plea with the heathen magistrates 

for the Christians, and by his immortal work on " Prescriptions against 

Heretics." Whilst refuting the absurd pretension of the G-nostics, who 

were not ashamed to boast of knowledge superior to that of the apostles, 
34 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



35 



he indignantly asks : " Was any thing concealed from Peter, who 

WAS STYLED THE ROCK ON WHICH THE CHURCH WAS TO BE BUILT, WHO 
RECEIVED THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, AND THE POWER OF 
LOOSING AND BINDING IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH?"* He justly 

judged that Peter, being constituted by Christ the fundamental rock and 
the ruler of the Church, must have been endowed with the most compre- 
hensive knowledge of divine things. His exposition is the more forcible, 
as it is not urged with any effort; but given as the obvious meaning, 
which even his adversaries could not question. 

After his fall, the African doctor continued to acknowledge Peter to be 
the rock on which the Church was built ; but as the Montanists denied 
that the Church could pardon the more enormous sins, he endeavored to 
explain the power of binding and loosing, as signifying a disciplinary ex- 
ercise of authority in external government, or of a judicial decision,^ or 
in some other way, so as to elude the proof drawn from it, of the author- 
ity to impart forgiveness to the most heinous sinners, on due manifestation 
of repentance. Feeling the insecurity of his position on these points, he 
boldly maintained that the power — whatever it might be — was promised 
to Peter personally — and that it did not embrace his successors, or the 
Church founded by him, much less the Universal Church. It is not ne- 
cessary to expose the false and frivolous character of these various exposi- 
tions, which were devised for the support of the severe principles of his 
sect, especially since they cannot be consistently advocated by those who, 
with Pearson and Pusey, admit the continuance in the Church of the 
power of forgiveness j or indeed by any who will not blindly adopt fanci- 
ful interpretations. The calm judgment of Tertullian, whilst he remained 
united with the Church, must not be set aside on account of subsequent 
aberrations. 

Early in the third century, Origen, a man of sublime genius and vast 
erudition, taught with great success in the famous school of Alexandria ; 
but having given loose reins to his imagination, he hazarded many con- 
jectural expositions of Scripture, which drew on him suspicion and cen- 
sure. His allegorical interpretations carry with them no weight; but 
when he explains the letter of the text, or testifies a fact, he is to be list- 
ened to with attention, especially if he be found to harmonize with the 
other fathers. Many of his writings have perished ; from one of which 
Eusebius, who wrote but a century after his time, has preserved a precious 
extract. The historian being desirous to prove by the testimony of the 
celebrated catechist, the authenticity of the first epistle of St. Peter, re- 
cites his words, which imply a commentary on the promise. "Peter," 
he says, " on whom the Church of Christ is built, against which the 
gates of hell shall not prevail, left one epistle which is generally admit- 



De Prsescr. § xxii. f L. de Pudicitia, c. xxi. 



36 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



ted."* This incidental interpretation is the more forcible, as it must be 
deemed the unstudied expression of the conviction of the writer. 

The liberty which Origen elsewhere takes of applying the promise to 
every believer in Christ, cannot lessen the force of this exposition, which 
is manifestly literal, and used to distinguish Peter from all others ; but 
his reasoning to prove that each of the faithful is insuperable whilst he 
clings to Christ, may be fairly applied to establish the unfailing character 
of the authority of Peter : " tor neither against the rock on which 
Christ built His Church, nor against the Church, shall the 
gates of hell prevail. "\ Heretics in every variety of form assail the 
truth of Christ as taught in the Church, and endeavor to overthrow her, 
but in vain : " Every author of a perverse sentiment is a builder of a gate 
of hell ; but many and numberless as are the gates of hell, no gate of hell 
shall prevail against the rock, or the Church which Christ builds upon the 
rock."T Origen, throughout, insists on the immovable nature of the rock, 
as well as of the Church, so as inseparably to connect them. His appli- 
cation of the text to every just man is evidently by the way of accommo- 
dation ; since he even denies that it can be applied to each act of episco- 
pal authority, unless the bishop be a Peter, namely, firm in the conscien- 
tious exercise of the power with which he is clothed. In its literal accept- 
ation, it must be restricted to Peter himself, on whom the Church was 
built, and to his successors in office. 

St. Cyprian, who filled the see of Carthage in the middle of the third 
century, is justly classed among the most illustrious of the fathers. § In 
his letter to those who had fallen in persecution, he rebukes some of them 
who had presumed to address him, as if they were the Church, and em- 
ploys for this purpose, the words of the promise, in order to show that 
without the bishop there can be no Church. " Our Lord," he says. 
" whose precepts and admonitions we ought to observe, establishing the 
honor of the bishop, and the order of His Church, speaks in the Gospel, 
and says to Peter : ' I say to thee that thou art Peter, and on this rock I 
will build My Church, and the gates of hell shaU not prevail against it ; 
and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven ; and whatso- 
ever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in Heaven; and 
whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in Heaven.' 
Thence, through the series of times and successions, the order of bishops 
and the system of the Church flow on ; so that the Church is established 
upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is governed by the same 
prelates. Since, then, this is the case, I am surprised that some, with 
audacious temerity, have ventured to write to me in the name of the 



* L. vi. Hist. EecL c. xsi. j In Matt. t. xii. p. 51S. j In Matt. t. xii, p. 522. 

§ For a full account of this martyr, and a luminous analysis of his writings, I refer to 
the articles with his name published in the Mercersburg Review in 1S52, over the initials 
of Dr. J. W\ Nevin. president of Marshall College. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



S7 



Church, whilst the Church consists of the bishop, clergy, and of all the 
hearers/'* Cyprian considers Peter in this circumstance as the repre- 
sentative of the Church, through whom she speaks and declares her faith. 
He was not bishop at the time when our Lord addressed him, but he was 
destined to be such, as the nature of the episcopal relation was insinuated 
by the figure of the foundation, as well as by the terms of the promise. 
In Peter, Bishop of the whole Church, the relation of each bishop to his 
flock was exemplified. In this sense the remark of Mr. Allies may be 
admitted. " It is evident/' he says, " that if the see of Peter, so often 
referred to by St. Cyprian, means the local see of Home, it also means the 
see of every bishop who holds that office : whereof Peter is the great 
type, example and source." f Cyprian, taking the sacred text in its ob- 
vious meaning, pointed to the principle of unity established in Peter, the 
representative of the whole episcopate, and so applied it to the local bishop. 
It is altogether inconsistent with its manifest import to exclude its direct 
application to Peter. Hence he employs this text to show that the pre- 
varicators, who were separated by their apostasy from himself, could not 
call themselves the Church, which name belongs only to the bishop, 
clergy and faithful. This reasoning implies that Peter is as essential to 
the Church at large, as each local bishop is to his flock ; so that it is ab- 
surd to apply the term to an acephalous body, from which he is excluded. 

Frequent reference to the same text occurs throughout the writings of 
Cyprian. Addressing Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, he adverts to the reply 
of Peter, to the question put by our Lord, on occasion of promising to 
give His flesh to eat : " "Will you also leave Me?" and remarks, '''Peter, 

OX WHOM THE CHURCH HAD BEEN BUILT BY THE LORD, Speaking One 

for all, and answering in the name of the Church, says, Lord, to whom 
shall we go ?"J In his letter to Florentius. he says : " Peter, ox whom 
the Church was to be built, speaks there in the name of the Church. "§ 
Everywhere Cyprian speaks of Peter as the rock on which the Church is 
built, the representative of episcopal power, the organ of the Church, and 
the living personification of the principle of unity. In attempting to 
support his error, that the remission of sins could not be effected by bap- 
tism administered by heretics, Cyprian observes, that the power of forgiv- 
ing sin was only granted to the prelates of the Church • " for to Peter, in 
the first place, ox whom the Lord eouxded the Church, axd whexce 
He ixstituted axd showed the origix of uxity, He gave this 
power, that whatsoever He had loosed on earth, should be loosed also in 
heaven. And after His resurrection, He speaks likewise to the apostles, 
saying: 'As the Father hath sent Me/ " &c.|| Although he draws a 
wrong inference from the premises, in opposition to the decree of the suc- 



- Ep. de lapsis, xxxiii. j Church of England, &e. p. 31. i Ep. W. ad Cornelium. 
§ Ep. lxix. ad Florentium. || Ep. ad Jubajanum, lxxiii. n. 7. 



88 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



cessor of Peter, this, far from weakening, strengthens considerably his 
testimony to the power, as promised first to Peter especially, that the 
unity of the episcopate and Church might be maintained. 

Cautioning the faithful against the false indulgence of schismatical 
priests, who hastily proffered communion to apostates, contrary to the en- 
actments made by the African bishops, he says : " There is one God 
and one Christ, and one Church, and one chair, founded by the 
voice or the Lord upon Peter. That any other altar be erected, or a 
new priesthood established, besides that one altar and one priesthood, is 
impossible. Whosoever gathers elsewhere, scatters. Whatever is devised 
by human frenzy, in violation of the divine ordinance, is adulterous, im- 
pious, sacrilegious."* 

The name of St. James, Bishop of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, is not so 
well known among us as that of the great bishop of Carthage ; but it is 
illustrious in the annals of the Church of Syria, which venerates him as 
one of her greatest doctors. He proved the strength of his faith by his 
fearless confession in the persecution of Maximin, and he was one of the 
fathers who bore testimony to the divinity of Christ in the great Council 
of Nice. We have but a small remnant of his works, in which, however, 
this passage is found : " Simon, who was called the rock on account of 
his faith, was justly styled rock."f 

St. Cyril, raised to the see of J erusalem in the year 3-40, shed a bright 
lustre of learning and sanctity around him, which is still reflected in his 
most precious writings. His discourses delivered to catechumens, and to 
neophytes, contain numerous passages expressive of the meaning of the 
texts regarding Peter ; which, as we may infer from the incidental charac- 
ter of the exposition, were thus generally understood. Speaking of the 
confession of 'the divinity of Christ by Peter, and of the keys bestowed in 
recompense of it, he plainly recognises the high privileges and station of 
this apostle : u All of them," he says, " remaining silent, for the doctrine 
was beyond the reach of man, Peter, the prince of the apostles and 
the supreme herald of the Church, not following his own inven- 
tions, nor persuaded by human reasoning, but enlightened in his mind by 
the Father, says to Him : ' Thou art Christ/ not simply this, but the 
'Son of the living God.' "J The high prerogatives of Peter are affirmed 
by Cyril in his comparison of the apostles with the prophets. " Be not 
ashamed of thy apostles," he says to each Christian ; " they are not in- 
ferior to Moses, nor second to the prophets, but they are as good as the 
good, and better than the good : for Elias was taken up into heaven, but 
Peter has the keys of the kingdom of heaven, since he heard : ' whatso- 
ever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven.' "§ He re- 



* Ad plebem, ep. xllii. f Apud Galland. t. v. p. 3, n. 13. 

J Cat. xi. $ 1. IleTpos b TrpcoroaTtXTTig raw anoa-6\o}i' ) kcu tjis pKicXqGias Kopv^aio; kj?/>u£. 

$ Cat. xiv. « 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OE THE PROMISE. 



£0 



lates the wonderful overthrow of Simon Magus at Rome by Peter, to 
render which credible, he dwells on the extraordinary powers with which 
the apostle was clothed : " Let it not appear wonderful/' he cries, " how- 
ever wonderful it be in itself, for Peter was he who carried around 
the keys of heaven." * Again he says elsewhere : " In the same 
power of the Holy Ghost, Peter, also the prince of the apostles, and 
the key-bearer of the kingdom of heaven, cured iEneas, a palsied 
man, in the name of Christ, at Lydda, now called Diospolis."f Explain- 
ing the article of the creed : " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church/' 
he says : " She is also styled a Church, or convocation, on account of the 
calling and assembling of ail in her. The Psalmist says : ' I will confess 
to Thee in the great Church ; I will praise Thee in the numerous people.' 
Before they sang in the Psalms : 1 In the churches bless ye the Lord God 
from the fountains of Israel :' but after the Jews fell from grace, in con- 
sequence of the snares laid for the Saviour, He instituted another society, 
formed of the Gentiles, our holy Christian Church ; of which He said to 
Peter : ' On this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it.' "t These testimonies to the high prerogatives of 
Peter, and his relation to the Church, show the ancient faith and tradition 
of the see of Jerusalem on these important points, as well as the received 
exposition of the sacred text. 

St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Cesarea, is another illustrious 
witness of the faith of the Eastern churches in the fourth century, as 
handed down from the beginning. He calls Peter the blessed one, 
who was preferred to the other disciples, who alone received a 
testimony above all the others, and who was pronounced blessed, rather 
than all the others, and to whom the keys of the heavenly kingdom 
were intrusted."! He says that u on account of the excellence of his 
faith, he received on himself the building of the Church :"|| that is, he 
was made the foundation on which the Church rests secure. These pas- 
sages clearly show that he acknowledged Peter to be the foundation of the 
Church, and its ruler, intrusted by Christ with governing authority. 
Similar is the language of his brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, who says : 
" The memory of Peter, who is the head of the apostles, is revered, and 
together with him the other members of the Church are glorified j but 
the Church of God is solidly established on him j for according to the 
prerogative granted him by God, he is the firm and most solid rock, on 
which the Saviour built His Church."^[ 

St. Gregory of Nazianzum, the friend of Basil, says : " Do you see 
that among the disciples of Christ, all of whom were sublime and worthy 
of their election, one is called a rock, and is intrusted with the 



* Uspio'ipojv. Cat. vi. j- Cat. xvii. J Cat. xviii. $ Procem. de judieio DeL 

[ Adv. Eunom., 1. 11. ^ S. Greg. Nyss. laudatio altera S. Steph., protom. 



40 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



foundations of the Church ; another is loved more, and rests on the 
breast of Jesus; and the others bear patiently the preference?"* He 
calls him u the support of the Church/'f " the most honored of the dis- 
ciples.";]; 

St. Chrysostom, who is celebrated for his literal exposition of the 
Sacred Scriptures, abounds in passages declaratory of the prerogatives of 
Peter. In reference to the question put by our Saviour to the apostles, 
whom believed they Him to be, he asks, " How does Peter act, the mouth 

OF ALL THE APOSTLES, THE SUMMIT OF THE WHOLE COLLEGE ? AU were 

interrogated ; he alone answers. What then does Christ say : 1 Thou art 
Simon, the son of Jonas, thou shalt be called Cephas ) for since thou hast 
proclaimed My Father, I also mention him who begot thee/ But since 
he had said, ' Thou art the Son of God/ in order to show that He was the 
Son of God as he was son of Jona, namely, of the same substance with 
His Father, He added, i and I say to thee that thou art Peter, and upon 
this rock I will build My Church f that is, upon the faith which thou 
hast confessed. "§ The Church is said to be built on the faith which Peter 
professed in the divinity of Christ, because this mystery is the foundation 
of the whole Christian system. ^\s Chrysostom, in the exposition of this 
text, had specially in view the Arians, whose heresy was so widely spread, 
he insists particularly on this truth as fundamental and essential. He 
does not, however, regard this faith as a mere abstraction; but he con- 
siders it as professed by Peter, on whom, he repeatedly affirms, that the 
Church is built ; so that when he says, that the Church is built on the 
faith which Peter confessed, he plainly means, on Peter confessing this 
faith. Accordingly, he proceeds to explain the prediction of our Lord as 
pointing to a numberless multitude of believers, who, under the pastoral 
government of Peter, profess the same mystery. " Here He manifestly 
foretold that the multitude of beHevers would be great, and He elevates 
the thoughts of Peter, and makes him the pastor. ' And the gates of 
hell shall not prevail against it.' If they shall not prevail against it, — 

much less shall they prevail against Me Then He adds another 

prerogative : ' And to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven/ 
What means, — 1 1 will give to thee V As the Father has given to thee 
the knowledge of Me, so I will give to thee. And He did not say : I will 
ask the Father to give thee : but, though the power was great, and the 
greatness of the gift ineffable, nevertheless, He says, ' I will give thee.' 
What, I pray, dost Thou give ? ' The keys,' He says, 1 of the kingdom 
of heaven, that whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also 
in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed 
also in heaven.' How then is it not belonging to Him who says — C I will 
give to thee/ — to grant also to sit on the right hand, and on the left ? 



* Or, XXVI., 6 fiev Tihpa KoKzirai, koX tov; fe/isXiovj rr;; EvvX^cta,- ^itrrsvsrrai. 

f Apolog. ad Patrem Orat. vii. J Orat ix. § Tn izurrti rfjs dfio\oyia:. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



41 



You perceive how He leads Peter to a sublime idea of Himself, and re- 
veals, and shows Himself to be the Son of God bj these two promises. 
For what God alone can grant, namely, the power to remit sins, and that 
the Church should remain immovable amidst the swelling surges, and that 
a fisherman should be stronger than any rock, whilst the whole world wars 
against him, He promises that He will grant. Thus the Father also said 
to Jeremiah : ' I have made thee a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass/ 
But the Father set him over one nation : HE PLACED THIS MAN 
OVER THE EXTIEE WORLD* Wherefore, I would willingly ask 
those who say that the dignity of the Son is less than that of the Father, 
which gifts appear to them greater, those which the Father, or those which 
the Son granted to Peter ? The Father made to him the revelation of His 
Son ■ but the Son spread everywhere throughout the world the revelation 
both of the Father and of the Son j and to a mortal man gave the power 
of all things in heaven, giving him the keys. He spread the Church 
throughout the entire world, and showed that it is stronger than the fir- 
mament : k ' for heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not 
pass away.' How is He inferior, who granted all these things — who ac- 
complished these things ? I do not speak thus, as if I would separate the 
works of the Father from those of the Son : ' for all things were made by 
Him, and without Him was made nothing :' but I speak with a view to 
silence the shameless tongues of those who utter such things. See in all 
these things, how great is His power. ' I say to thee, thou art Peter j I 
will build My Church ; I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven." 't Thus Chrysostom proved that Christ is truly God, equal to 
the Father, because He gave to Peter powers which God alone could 
gTant, and rendered the Church of which he is pastor, impregnable and 
indefectible. 

In answer to an objection against the divinity of Christ, taken from His 
having prayed for Peter that his faith might not fail, Chrysostom observes, 
that as His passion was approaching, it was fit that He should manifest 
His human nature by the humility of prayer \ but he points to the pro- 
mise of the keys as made without any previous prayer, which shows that 
He had all things at His disposal. " As He is going to suffer, He speaks 
humbly, to show that He was man, for He, who built the Church on the 
confession of Peter, and so strengthened her that no clanger, nor death 
itself, can vanquish her, — He who gave to him the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven, and intrusted him with so great power, without at all needing 
to pray for this purpose, how much less should He need it in this cir- 
cumstance ? For He did not say. I have prayed, but He spoke with au- 
thority : I WILL BUILD My CHURCH OX THEE, AND GIVE TO THEE THE 
KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN."! 



* na^raxou t% oiKovyLkvr}<;. -J- S. Chrvs. horn. lv. in Matt. 

{ Horn, lxxxii., alias lxxxiii., is Matt 



42 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



In his panegyric on the martyr Ignatius, who was Bishop of Antioch, 
where Peter had resided for a time, Chrysostom dwells on the great honor 
thus bestowed by God on that city : " for He set over it Peter, the 

DOCTOR OF THE WHOLE "WORLD, TO WHOM He GAVE THE KEYS OF 
HEAVEN, TO WHOSE WILL AND POWER He INTRUSTED ALL THINGS/'* 

Panegyrizing both the apostles Peter and Paul, he thus carefully distin- 
guishes the high prerogatives of Peter : — " Peter the leader of the apos- 
tles, Peter the commencement of the orthodox faith, — the great and illus- 
trious priest of the Church, — the necessary counsellor of Christians, the 
depositary of supernal powers, — the apostle honored by the Lord. What 
shall we say of Peter ? the delightful spectacle of the Church ; the splendor 
of the entire world, the most chaste dove, the teacher of the apostles, the 
ardent apostle, fervent in spirit, angel and man, full of grace, the firm 
rock of faith, the mature wisdom of the Church, who, on account of his 
purity, from the mouth of the Lord heard himself styled blessed, and son 
of the dove : who received from the Lord Himself the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven. PiEJOiCE, Peter, rock of faith !"f This is, indeed, 
the language of panegyric : but it would have been utterly unwarrantable, 
if Peter were not in fact the necessary counsellor of Christians, the teacher 
of the apostles, the rock of faith. It is not only when expressly engaged 
in panegyric, that Chrysostom thus speaks of Peter. They are his favorite 
expressions, which everywhere occur in his writings : " Peter," says he, 
" is the foundation of the Church, — the fisherman who cast his net into 
the sea, and caught in it the whole world.J He left his ship, and under- 
took the government of the Church ; he was called the key-bearer of the 
kingdom of heaven. § He was the chief who occupied the first place, and 
to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven were intrusted." || He was 
" the pillar of the Church, the foundation of faith, the head of the apos- 
tolic choir." " To him the Lord gate the presidency of the 
Church throughout the whole earth."** 

St. Epiphanius, bishop of Salamina, in the island of Cyprus, a con- 
temporary of Chrysostom, calls Peter " the first of the apostles, the solid 
rock on which the Church was built. "ff 

* In S. Ignat. M. Barrow admits "the titles and eulogies given to St. Peter by the 
fathers : who call him e^apxov, (the prince,) KopmpaTov, (the ring-leader,) K£6a\^v, (the head.) 
-poecpov, (the president.) apxnyov, (the captain,) -pofjyopov, (the prolocutor,) -purorarnv, (the 
foreman.) -poTarrjv, (the warden,) bcxpirov -cov A-ocroXow, (the choice or egregious apostle,) 
majorem, (the greater or grandee among them,) primum, (the first or prime apostle.)" — A 
Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy, Sup. i. § vi. 

j In SS. Petrum et Paulum, torn. v. p. 690. This oration, with another, was first 
edited, at Rome, by Gerard Yossius, in the year 1580, in the original Greek, with a Latin 
translation. I quote from the translation published in Paris in 1687. 

J De Verbis Isaiae, horn. 4, p. 609, torn. i. 

§ In duodecim Apost. torn. v. p. 691. 

|{ In Ep. ad Corinth, i. c. ix., horn. 21. 

C Horn. 2, de poem in Psalm 1. 

** Ad. pop. Antioch. horn. 80, de poenitentia. ft ^ n Ancorato. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



43 



St. Cyril of Alexandria observes of our Lord : " He was pleased to 
call him Peter, by an apt similitude, as the one on whom He was about 
to found the Church."* 

St. Hilary filled the see of Poictiers in Gaul, in the middle of the 
fourth century. In his treatise On the Trinity, he thus distinguishes the 
teachers, from whom he derived the knowledge of this mystery : " Mat- 
thew, from a publican chosen to be an apostle ; John, through the fami- 
liarity of the Lord, made worthy of a revelation of heavenly mysteries, and 
after his confession of the mystery, blessed Simon, lying beneath the 

FABRIC OF THE CHURCH,f AND RECEIVING THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM 

of heaven, and all the others preaching by the Holy Spirit. "J Although 
wholly intent on establishing the divinity of Christ, Hilary strongly de- 
clares the distinguishing attributes of Peter, who supports the Church, as 
a foundation-stone sustains the building, and who has received the keys 
of the kingdom, as the symbol of spiritual sovereignty. He elsewhere 
addresses all the apostles as having received the keys, because all received 
the power of binding and loosing ;§ but when distinguishing Peter from 
Matthew, J ohn, and Paul, he puts the keys as his peculiar characteristic. 
All may be said to have received them, as far as they are symbols of apos- 
tolic power, but to Peter only they were given expressly by Christ, as the 
proper token of delegated sovereignty. 

AThen speaking of the confession made 'by Peter, Hilary shows that it 
was extolled by our Saviour, as divinely revealed, because it was an ac- 
knowledgment that He is the true and eternal Son of God the Father : 
"For praise/' says he, "was given to Peter, not on account of the con- 
fession of the honor, but on account of his acknowledgment of the mystery, 
because he confessed not merely Christ, but Christ the Son of God. The 
Father saying, ' This is My Son,' revealed to Peter, that he might say, 
'Thou art the Son of God/ On this rock of confession,|| therefore, the 
Church is built. This faith is the foundation of the Church : through this 
faith the gates of hell are powerless against her. This faith has the keys 
of the heavenly kingdom. What this faith binds or looses on earth, is 
bound and loosed in heaven. This faith is the gift of the Father's reve- 
lation 5 not falsely to assert that Christ is a creature, drawn forth from 
nothing, but to confess Him to be the Son of God, according to His natural 
property. Oh ! impious frenzy of wretched folly, that does not understand 
the martyr of blessed old age and faith, the martyr Peter, for whom He 
prayed to the Father, that his faith might not fail in temptation — who, 
having twice repeated the profession of the love which God demanded of 
him, sighed, on being a third time interrogated, as if his love were doubt- 
ful and uncertain ; thereby also meriting to hear thrice from the Lord, 



* L. ii. in c. xii. Joan. 

I L. vi. de Trinitate, n. 20. 

U On this confession, as on a rock. 



f iEdificationi ecclesise subjacens. 
I Ibidem, p. 166. 



44 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



after being purified of his weaknesses by this threefold trial : ' Feed My 
sheep :' — who, whilst all the other apostles remained silent, understanding, 
in a manner beyond human infirmity, from the revelation of the Father, 
that He was the Son of God, merited pre-eminent glory by the confession 
of his faith ! To what necessity of interpreting his words are we now 
brought ! He confessed Christ to be the Son of God : but you, (Arum,) 
the lying priesthood of a new apostleship, urge me to believe that Christ 
is a creature brought forth from nothing. What violence you offer to His 
glorious words ! He confessed the Son of God : for this he is blessed. 
This is the revelation of the Father, this is the foundation of the Church, 
this is the security for eternity. Hence he has the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven — hence his judgments on earth are ratified in heaven. He 
learned by revelation the mystery hidden from ages — he spoke the faith — 
he declared the nature — he confessed the Son of God. Whoever, on the 
contrary, affirming Him to be a creature, denies this, should first deny the 
apostleship of Peter, his faith, blessedness, priesthood, martyrdom • and 
then let him understand that he is estranged from Christ, because Peter, 
confessing Him to be the Son, merited these things. . . . Let there be a 
different faith, if there be different keys of heaven. Let there be a dif- 
ferent faith, if there is to be another Church, against which the gates of 
hell shall not prevail. Let there be another faith, if there is to be another 
apostleship, binding and loosing in heaven what it binds and looses on 
earth. Let there be another faith, if Christ shall be proclaimed to be a 
different Son of God from what He is. But if this faith only that con- 
fessed Christ to be the Son of God, merited in Peter the glory of all beati- 
tudes, that which declares Him to be a creature from nothing, must ne- 
cessarily be not the Church, nor of Christ, since it has not obtained the 
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and is contrary to the apostolic faith and 
power."* 

From these quotations the reader has a full and correct view of the sen- 
timents of Hilary. His object is to show that the Arian heresy had no 
part or share in the power of the keys, or the privileges granted to Peter, 
because it had not the faith which obtained for Peter these privileges. 
There is not the least effort to establish a distinction between Peter and 
the confession of faith which he made : but the Arians are confounded, 
by being told, that, as they deny Christ to be the Son of the living God, 
they have not the power of the keys, and are not inheritors of the pro- 
mises made to the Church. Peter, then, confessing the divinity of Christ, 
is the foundation : his is the apostleship, the acts of which are confirmed 
in heaven : the Church connected with him is that against which the 
gates of hell cannot prevail : there can be no other faith, no other power, 
no other Church. In the circumstances in which St. Hilary and other 



* De Trin. L vi. p. 169. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 45 



fathers spoke, during the prevalence of Arianism, and at a time when no 
controversy was agitated concerning the prerogatives of Peter and his suc- 
cessors, it was natural for them to employ the text against the formidable 
heresy which they were engaged in refuting. As Peter had made a 
glorious confession of the divinity of Christ, and had received his name 
and privileges in reward of it, they rightly insisted that on this confession 
the whole fabric of Christianity rests ; so that to deny the eternal genera- 
tion of Christ is to overthrow all revealed religion, and make void all the 
counsels of God for the salvation of men. The reasoning of Hilary per- 
fectly harmonizes with the obvious exposition of the text, since the con- 
fession was the act of Peter under divine illumination ; and to say that 
the Church was founded on the confession of the divinity of Christ made 
by Peter, is equivalent to declaring thatr it was founded on Peter, in con- 
sequence of his having confessed Christ to be the Son of the living God. 
In applying the text to the controversy of the day, the fathers did not, 
even by the remotest implication, deny its direct force for establishing the 
prerogatives of Peter ; which, on the contrary, on so many occasions, they 
most unequivocally asserted. 

In his commentary on the glorious confession of Peter, Hilary observes : 
n The confession of Peter obtained a suitable reward, because he discerned 
the Son of God in the man.* Blessed is he, who was praised for observ- 
ing and seeing beyond what human eyes could see ; not beholding what 
was of flesh and blood, but discerning the Son of God by the revelation 
of the heavenly Father ; and who was judged worthy to be the first to 
recognise in Christ His divine nature. ! thou foundation of the 

CHURCH, HAPPY IN THE NSW APPELLATION WHICH THOU KECEIYEST I 
! ROCK, WORTHY OF THAT BUILDING WHICH IS TO DESTROY THE 
INFERNAL POWERS, AND THE GATES OF HELL, AND ALL THE BARS OF 
DEATH ! ! HAPPY GATE-KEEPER OF HEAVEN, TO WHOSE DISCRETION 
THE KEYS OF THE ETERNAL PORCH ARE DELIVERED. AND WHOSE JUDG- 
MENT ON EARTH IS AN AUTHORITATIVE ANTICIPATION OF HEAVENLY 

judgment, so that those things which are bound or loosed on earth, ob- 
tain in heaven the same order and determination/"!" Any effort to illus- 
trate this passage would be superfluous. 

After this illustrious doctor of the Church of Gaul, the order of time 
presents to us Optatus, bishop of Milevis.t in Africa, who was among 
the most learned, eloquent and saintly prelates in the decline of the fourth 
century. Of him St. Augustin says, that if the Church depended on the 
virtue of her ministers, his life might serve as a proof of her authority. 
He wrote against the Donatists, whom he held to be inexcusable for as- 
suming the name of Church, while they remained separated from that 
see, which, in the person of Peter, received the keys : " Christ," he re- 



* He recognised Christ as the eternal Son of God, although veiled in human flesh, 
j Com. in Matt. c. xtL J Mila, near Tunis, or Constantina. 



46 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



marks, " in the Canticle of Canticles, intimates that His dove is one ; that 
she is a chosen spouse, an enclosed garden, and a sealed fountain ; so that 
all heretics neither have the keys, which Peter alone received, nor 
the ring with which the fountain is sealed : and the garden, in which God 
plants the shrubs, belongs to none of them. What can you say to these 
things, you who secretly cherish and shamelessly defend schism, taking 
to yourselves the name of the Church ?"* To how many deluded men in 
our day might not this reproach be addressed ! 

Let us hear the eloquent bishop of Milan, whose lucid exposition of 
Catholic truth dissipated the prejudices and errors of Augustin, and pre- 
pared his heart for the triumph of divine grace over pride and passion. 
In his commentary on the fortieth Psalm, Ambrose says : " This is that 
Peter to whom Christ said : ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build My Church/ Therefore where Peter is, there is the 
Church, there death is not, but life eternal : and therefore He added : 
1 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : and I will give unto 
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.' Blessed Peter, against whom 
the gate of hell did not prevail, and the gate of heaven was not closed ! 
on the contrary, he destroyed the porches of hell, and laid open those of 
heaveji : therefore, while on earth, he opened heaven, and closed hell/'f 
Speaking of the question put by our Redeemer to His disciples as to the 
opinions prevailing among men concerning Him, he observes the silence 
of Peter in this circumstance ; but calls our attention to his promptitude 
in answering the interrogation as to their own belief. " This, therefore, 
is Peter, who answered rather than the other apostles, yea, for the others, 
and he is therefore styled the foundation, because he not only fulfilled his 
duty individually, but acted in behalf of all. Him Christ eulogized : to 
him the Father made a revelation : for he, who speaks of the true genera- 
tion of the Father, learned it not from flesh, but from the Father. \ Faith, 
therefore, is the foundation of the Church : for it was not said of the flesh 
of Peter, but of his faith, that the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it : but the confession overcame hell. And this confession does not ex- 
clude one heresy only : for since the Church, like a good ship, is lashed 
oftentimes by many waves, the foundation of the Church ought to prevail 
against all heresies. The day would close before I should have enumerated 
the names of the heretics and different sects : but against all of them that 
faith is available, that Christ is the Son of God, eternally proceeding from 
the Father, born in time of the Virgin. "§ When Ambrose says, that faith 
is the foundation of the Church, he evidently speaks of faith in the 



* Opt. Afric. 1. 1. f In Psalm xl. enar. § 30. 

X Hie est ergo Petrus, qui respondit pras ceteris Apostolis, imo pro caeteris. et icleo fun- 
daruentum dieitur, quia novit non solum proprium, sed etiam commune servare. Huic 
astipulatus est Christus, revelavit Pater. 

§ De Incarn. c. 4 and 5. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



47 



divinity of Christ as professed by Peter, that is, of Peter professing the 
faith. He is, therefore, styled the foundation, in reward of his prompti- 
tude to confess Christ, before the others, and in their name. The confes- 
sion which he made was, indeed, the expression of his individual faith, 
but it was made by him in reply to a question that regarded all ; nor did 
he give it in as peculiar to himself. St. Ambrose insists that the Church 
was not built on the flesh of Peter, but on his faith ; because it was no 
mere natural quality, but his faith in the divinity of Christ, that gained 
for him this prerogative ; and this faith is ever to prove the bulwark of 
the Church against the endless varieties of heresy. He insists on this for 
the same reason as Hilary and Chrysostom, in order the more effectually 
to combat Arianism. In his work on faith, he observes : " That you may 
know that what He asks as man, He ordains by His divine power, you 
have in the Gospel what He said to Peter : 1 1 have prayed for thee, that 
thy faith may not fail/ And when Peter said before : ' Thou art Christ, 
the Son of the living Grod/ He answered : 1 Thou art Peter, and upon this 
rock I will build My Church, and to thee I will give the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven/ Could He not, therefore, strengthen the faith of him to 
whom, of His own authority, He gave a kingdom, and whom, in calling 
a rock, he made the strength of the Church ? Consider when it 
is that He prays — when it is that He commands. He prays when He is 
about to suffer; He commands when He is believed to be the Son of 
God."* Peter, then, is the rock of strength on which the Church rests : 
he has received a kingdom from Christ. St. Augustin testifies that in a 
hymn composed by St. Ambrose, which was in general use, Peter wag 
styled the rock of the Church.*)* 

It is manifest that St. Ambrose interpreted the texts in question pre- 
cisely as we interpret them, and recognised in Peter special powers and 
prerogatives not granted to the other apostles of Christ. He was the 
rock, — the foundation, — the strength and support of the Church, — sus- 
taining all the parts of the vast fabric, holding them together in unity, 
and imparting to them strength and durability. He received a kingdom 
from Christ, — that heavenly kingdom whose keys were intrusted to him. 
Elsewhere Ambrose says : " Christ is a rock : ' for they drank of that 
spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ/ He did 
not deny the favor of this appellation even to His disciple, that he may 
also be Peter, because from the rock he derives the solidity of constancy, 
and the firmness of faith. "J Thus far he retains the literal meaning of 
the text, and often and strongly inculcates it. He then takes occasion 
from it for exhortation, and passes to a mystical interpretation, similar to 



* De Fide, 1. iv. This observation coincides admirably with that of St. Chrysostom, 
fcbove cited, p. 46. 

f Hoc ipso, petra ecclesiaa, canente, culpam diluit. Aug. Retract. 1. 1. c. xxi. 
i L. vi. in ~Luo «, 97, 



48 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



one found in Origen. "Peter," he elsewhere says, "is therefore styled a 
rock for his devotion, and the Lord is styled a rock for His power, as the 
apostle says : ' they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and 
the rock was Christ/ He justly deserves the communication of the name, 
who is made worthy to partake of the work, for Peter in the same house 
laid the foundation. Peter plants, the Lord gives an increase, the Lord 
waters."* 

The last verse of the thirty-eighth Psalm reads thus, in our Vulgate 
translation : " Oh forgive me, that I may be refreshed, before I go hence 
and be no more."f On these words St. Ambrose writes : " Forgive me, 
that is, forgive me here where I have sinned. Unless Thou forgivest me 
here, I shall not be able to find there the repose consequent on forgive- 
ness : for what remains bound on earth, shall remain bound in heaven ; 
what is loosed on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Therefore, the Lord 
gave to His apostles what previously was reserved to His own judgment, 
a discretionary power to remit sins, J lest what should be speedily loosed 
remain bound for a long time. Finally, hear what He says : 6 1 will give 
to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven/ To thee, He says, I will 
give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that thou mayest loose and bind. 
Novatian did not hear this, but the Church of God heard it : therefore, 
he is in his fallen state ; we are in the way of forgiveness : he is in a state 
of impenitence ; we, of grace. What is said to Peter, is said to the apos- 
tles. We do not usurp the power, but we obey the command, lest, when 
the Lord shall afterward come, and find those bound who should have 
been loosed, he be indignant against the dispenser who kept the servants 
bound, w T hom the Lord had ordered to be loosed. "§ In this beautiful 
vindication of the power of forgiveness, as exercised by the Catholic 
Church, there is nothing that militates against the distinction which 
Christ made in the powers of the apostles. Ambrose quotes the words 
addressed to Peter, to prove that the Church founded on Peter has the 
power of forgiving sins : and observes that this power was not confined to 
Peter, Christ having spoken in like manner to all the apostles. He does 
not say that He spoke precisely the same words, or gave to each one the 
same power to be exercised independently ; much less does He treat here 
of the governing power of the Church, as represented by the keys of the 
heavenly kingdom, which were peculiarly given to Peter, but he speaks 
of the power of forgiveness, which was common to all. The power of the 



* L. v. § 33. 

f The Vulgate version of the Psalms was made from the Greek version of the Septua- 
gint, which, in some places, presents a reading somewhat different from the actual 
Hebrew. 

J Peccata remittendi sequitatem. The Vatican manuscript reads : peccata remittendi 
gequitate solvenda. $ Enar. in Psalm xxxviii. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



40 



keys, lie elsewhere ascribes to Peter alone : " There went up/' he says, 
" to the mountain, Peter, who received the keys of the kingdom op 
heaven ; John, to whom His mother is intrusted ; James, also, who first 
ascended the episcopal throne."* The keys of the heavenly kingdom 
were consequently the characteristic badge of Peter, as it was the peculiar 
privilege of J ohn to receive in his charge the Mother of our Lord, and the 
province of James to govern with episcopal authority the Church of Jeru- 
salem. " Peter, James, and John, and Barnabas," are styled pillars, but 
Peter is called " an eternal gate, against which the gates of hell shall not 
prevail."^ 

The equality of Paul to Peter is asserted by Ambrose, not as to the 
power of office, but as to the merit of virtue ; and this with a view to 
prove that the choice of the Holy Spirit was full of wisdom. " Being 
chosen by the command of the Holy Spirit, which, is abundant evidence 
of the excellence of his merits, he was not unworthy of so great a college. 
For the same grace shone forth in those whom the same Spirit had chosen. 
Nor was Paul inferior to Peter, though the one was the foundation 
of the Church, and the other a wise architect, knowing how to direct 
the steps of the nations that believe. Paul, I say, was not unworthy of 
the college of the apostles, since he also may be compared with the first, 
and was second to none : for he who does not acknowledge himself in- 
ferior, makes himself equal. "J The meaning is obvious. Ambrose is 
careful to mark even here the distinguishing characteristic of Peter as the 
foundation of the Church, and first of the apostles, while he supposes 
Paul to be equal to him in merit, and on that account to compare even 
with the first. 

Some passages of the writings of Ambrose are occasionally abused to 
obscure his testimony to the primacy of Peter. Any one, however, who 
considers them in their connection, cannot hesitate as to their meaning. 
Those places in which he gives interpretations evidently mystical, need 
not be specially explained, since, as we have already remarked, such ex- 
positions cannot have weight in doctrinal inquiries. 

St. Jerom, the contemporary of Ambrose, is justly esteemed, not only 
for his excellent translation of the Scriptures, but also for his lucid ex- 
position of their meaning. In his work against Jovinian, who assailed 
virginity, and objected that Peter, a married man, was chosen to be prince 
of the apostles, J erom replied that his wife was probably deceased ; a 
conjecture rendered likely by the omission of all mention of her in Scrip- 
ture, as well as by the circumstance, that his mother-in-law, when relieved 
from the fever, served at table. He proceeded to show that John, on 
account of his virginity, enjoyed the special love of Christ, and was ad- 



* In Lucam, 1. vii. n. 9. See also in Psalm cxviii. Serm. 20. 
| De fide, 1. iv. c. 1, I 25. % L. de Sp. S. \ 158. 

4 



50 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



mitted to great familiarity. He then objects to himself that Peter was 
chosen to be the foundation of the Church ; and observes, that the other 
apostles likewise received similar powers, though he admits that, to pre- 
vent schism, Peter was chosen to be the head of all. He further inquires, 
why the virgin apostle, John, did not receive this distinction ; and answers 
that the age of Peter was a reason for preferring him : "But, you say," 
he remarks, "the Church is founded upon Peter: though the same thing 
is elsewhere done upon all the apostles, and all receive the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven, and the strength of the Church is consolidated upon 
them equally : yet one is chosen among the twelve, that a 

HEAD BEING ESTABLISHED, THE OCCASION OF SCHISM MAY BE REMOVED. 

But why was not the virgin John chosen ? Regard was had to age, be- 
cause Peter was elder, lest a very young man should be preferred to men 
of advanced age."* It is clear, that while Jerom advocates so strongly 
the excellence of virginity and its special prerogatives, he is careful to lay 
down, in clear and precise terms, the primacy of Peter. All the. apostles 
are, indeed, in a certain degree the foundations of the Church, since of 
the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the Church in glory, it is said: "the 
wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the 
twelve apostles of the Lamb ;"t but Peter is strictly the foundation, since 
to him only, and not to the others, Christ said : " Thou art Peter, and on 
this rock I will build My Church." All of them have received the keys 
of the kingdom, inasmuch as all have received the power of binding and 
loosing, which is sometimes expressed by that symbol : but it was not 
without special and high design that to Peter alone was said : " To thee I 
will give the keys of the kingdom." Jerom maintains that similar powers 
were granted to the others, on which account it may be justly said, that 
upon all of them the strength of the Church is consolidated, since all con- 
cur to the great work of the ministry, in union, however, with Peter, who 
is the head, invested with all the authority necessary for maintaining 
order and unity : a head, by the appointment of whom all plausible pre- 
text for schism is removed. "Were not this his peculiar privilege, there 
was no need of explaining why John was not chosen to be chief. 

In his commentary upon the similitude of the wise man, who built his 
house upon a rock, Jerom observes : " On this rock the Lord founded the 
Church : from this rock Peter the apostle derived his name. The found- 
ation which the apostolic architect laid, is our Lord Jesus Christ alone : 
on this stable and firm foundation, and of itself founded with a strong 
mass, the Church of Christ is built." J This, at first sight, may appear 
not to harmonize with the general interpretation of the fathers; but, by 
attention to the occasion in which it was written, it will be found not to 



* Adv. Jov. 1. 1, p. 16, torn. iii. 
J Com. Matt. c. viii. f. 12. 



t Apoc. xxi. 14. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



51 



be at variance. In reference to the similitude used by our Saviour in 
His sermon on the mount, it was most natural to observe, that He was 
the wise man who built His Church upon a rock, and that from this cir- 
cumstance Peter was styled a rock : but it would be a strange phrase to 
say, that He built His Church upon Himself, thus confounding the archi- 
tect with the foundation. Hear Jerom elsewhere : Having quoted a pas- 
sage from the writings of St. Peter, he exclaims : " Oh sentence truly 
worthy of the apostle and of the rock of Christ !"* by which he plainly 
means him whom Christ made a rock of faith. " As Plato was the prince 
of philosophers, so was Peter of the apostles : on him the Church or 
the Lord, an enduring structure, was BUiLT."f In his letter to 
Marcellus he says of Peter: "upon whom the Lord built his 

CHURCH."t 

The allusion to the text of St. Paul presents a change of metaphor. In 
the former Christ was the architect, and Peter the foundation : in this 
Paul is architect, and Christ the foundation. Metaphors admit of this 
variety, and it would be unjust to transfer what regards one similitude to 
another somewhat different. 

The commentary of Jerom on the promise of our Saviour to Peter, 
plainly establishes the relation between them. " What means," he asks, 
" ' I say to thee V Because thou hast said to Me : ' Thou art Christ, the 
Son of the living God : I also say to thee f not in vain discourse, void of 
effect, but I say to thee, because My word effects what it expresses : ' that 
thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church/ As He gave 
light to the apostles, that they might be called the light of the world, and 
they received other appellations from the Lord : so also He bestowed the 
name of Peter on Simon, who believed in the rock Christ ; and according 
to the metaphor of a rock, it is properly said to him : ' I will build My 
Church upon thee/ ' And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it/ 
I think that the gates of hell are the vices and the sins of men ; or cer- 
tainly the doctrines of heretics, by which men are allured and led to 
hell."§ Here the learned interpreter applies to Peter the term rock, and 
explains the promise, as if it were said : I will build My Church on thee. 
Against this Church neither the vices and sins of men, nor the doctrines 
of heretics, can prevail. Scandals must come, and may obscure the lustre 
of the Church, but they cannot effect her overthrow : heresies may be 
broached, even by those who were children of the Church, but they can 
never receive her sanction, because Christ teaches in her "all days even 
to the consummation of the world." 

When commenting on the rebuke of Christ, " Go behind me, Satan," 
Jerom supposes his reader to inquire, how this is compatible with the 
sublime address made to Peter, and with the powers conferred on him. 



* Adv. Jovinian, 1. 1, c. iv. f L. 1, adv. Pelag. c. 4. J Class. 2, Ep. 4, n. 2. 
g Com. in Matt. torn. ix. f. 24, 25. Ed. Bas. an. 1516. 



52 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



" If," he answers, " the inquirer reflect, he will perceive that the bene- 
diction, and beatitude, and power, and the building of the Church upon 
him, were promised to Peter for a future time, and were not granted at 
the present time : I will build (he says) on thee My Church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it : and to thee I will give the keys 
of the kingdom of heaven f — all in the future tense. Had he given them 
immediately, the error of a perverse confession* would never have taken 
place in him." - )" This enlightened doctor was firmly persuaded that if 
Peter had been at once constituted primate, the providence of God would 
have prevented his fall. 

St. J erom unhesitatingly explained the rock of Peter and his successors 
in the see of Rome. Addressing Pope Damasus to obtain his instructions 
in regard to the use of the term hypostasis, which in the East was under- 
stood by some of the Divine Nature, while others used it of the Divine 
Persons, as it is now employed, he says : " Let it not appear invidious : 
let the pomp of Roman majesty withdraw : I speak with the successor of 
the fisherman, and a disciple of the cross. I, who follow no one as chief J 
except Christ, am united in communion with your Holiness, that is, with 

THE CHAIR OF PETER : ON THAT ROCK I KNOW THAT THE CHURCH IS 

built. Whoever eats the lamb out of this house is profane. Whoever 
was not in the ark of Noe, must perish in the deluge. "§ Respectfully 
approaching the heir of Peter's faith, J erom begs that his boldness may 
be excused ; and reminds Damasus, who was encompassed with a splendor 
like that of imperial majesty, that his greatest dignity is that of successor 
of the fisherman. This is his imperishable title, his highest glory : as 
this authority is the fundamental and immovable principle of the Church. 
We have in this passage the obvious meaning of the text with its applica- 
tion in the most direct and positive manner. 

St. Augustin, in several places, gives the common interpretation of 
the texts regarding the primacy ; but in the revision of his works, he ob- 
served, that he had likewise explained "the rock" of Christ Himself, and 
he left the reader to judge which of the two expositions was the more 
probable. 1 1 Heivas led to doubt by the change of gender observable in 
the Greek and Latin : a distinction to which no importance can be at- 
tached by any one acquainted with the language in which our Lord spoke, 
which admits of no variation in the term, as we have already seen. His 
hesitation cannot outweigh the positive judgment of so many fathers, who 
concur in recognising Peter as the rock of which Christ spoke ; especially 
as the context, by the acknowledgment of most learned adversaries, ad- 
mits of no other interpretation. He did not, however, hesitate as to the 
meaning of the whole passage of Matthew, or of the other texts, which he 
uniformly expounded as declaring the governing authority wherewith 



* Peter's denial of Christ. 
X Primum. 



f Com. in Matt. torn. ix. f. 24, 25. Ed. Bas. an. 1516. 
$ Ep. xv. Damaso. |] L. 1. Retract, c. xxi. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



53 



Peter was invested. In his discourses on the Gospel of St. John, he ob- 
serves that our Lord left almsgiving and prayer as remedies for the slighter 
sins into which even just men fall, and taught us to pray for forgiveness, 
as we forgive our debtors. " The Church," he says, " happy in hope, 
does this," (namely, sues for pardon in the name of her frail children,) 
" in this wretched life : which Church Peter, the apostle, ON account of 
the primacy of his apostleship, represented in a figurative univer- 
sality," (Peter being addressed as the whole Church, which he represented, 
as her head.) " For, as to what strictly regards himself, he was by na- 
ture an individual man, by grace an individual Christian ; but by more 
abundant grace he was an apostle, and the first : but when it was said 
to him : ' To thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and 
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound also in heaven ; and 
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven/ he 
represented the whole Church, which in this world is agitated by various 
temptations, as by showers, floods, and tempests, and which does not fall, 
because it is founded on the rock, whence Peter derived his name."* 
Here Augustin departs from the general interpretation of the term rock, 
yet considers Peter as the representative of the whole Church, receiving 
from Christ a power to be exercised for the benefit of all. He was not a 
mere actor in the scene, but an official representative, " on account of 
the primacy of his apostleship," in which capacity he received the 
promise, and subsequently the power promised, not for his mere personal 
advantage, but for the benefit of the Church at large. The holy doctor in- 
sists on this point, because the Montanists and Novatians denied to the 
Church the power of forgiveness. " Therefore," says he, " the Church, 
which is founded on Christ, received through Peter the keys of the king- 
dom of heaven, that is, the power of binding and loosing sins. For what 
the Church is reallyf in Christ, Peter is the same mystically in the rock : 
according to which signification Christ is the rock, Peter the Church. 
This Church, therefore, which Peter represented, as long as she is in the 
midst of evils, is freed from evils, by loving and following Christ. And 
she follows Him especially by means of those who contend unto death for 
the truth. But to the multitude is said, ' follow Me f for which multi- 
tude Christ suffered. "J In pursuing this allegorical explanation, Augus- 
tin evidently presupposes that the keys were given to Peter, and that in 
him,§ the Church received them, inasmuch as not for himself only — "an 
individual man, an individual Christian" — but for all the Church, he, who 



* Tract, cxxiv. in c. xxi. Joan. Ev. 

f Quod est enim per proprietatem in Christo Ecclesia, hoc est per significationem 
Petrus in petra, qua significatione intelligitur Christus petra, Petrus Ecclesia. Ib. 

J Sed universitati dicitur : sequere me. The command is directed to all the Church. 

$ Ecclesia ergo, quae fundatur in Christo, claves ab eo regni coelorum accepit in Petro, 
id est potestatem ligandi solvendique peccata. Tract, cxxiv. in Joan. 



54 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



was u an apostle and first of the apostles," received this power.* " For 
the benefit of all the saints/' says he, " inseparably belonging to the body 
of Christ, Peter, the first of the apostles, received the keys of the 
kingdom, for its government in this most tempestuous life, to bind and 
loose sins,j" and with reference to the same saints, John the Evangelist 
reclined on the bosom of Christ, to express the most tranquil repose of 
this most secret life." John is said to represent or signify the Church 
triumphant, inasmuch as, reposing on the bosom of Jesus, he presents an 
image of the happiness of the saints. The representative character of 
Peter is clearly marked as official, directed to the government of the 
Church militant in this stormy life. He is the pilot placed by Christ at 
the helm ; — he is the ruler, who received from Christ the keys of His 
kingdom. 

It is in the same sense that St. Augustin insists that not only Peter, 
but all the apostles, in his person, since he represented the whole Church, 
received the keys, because the power of forgiving sins was not limited to 
him alone, being communicated to all of them for the benefit of the whole 
Church. " For it is evident," he says, u that Peter in many places of 
the Scripture represents the Church,j chiefly in that place where it is 
said : i I give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever 
thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou 
shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.' What ! did Peter receive 
those keys, and Paul not receive them ? Did Peter receive them, and 
John and James and the rest of the apostles not receive them ? Or are 
not those keys in the Church, where sins are daily remitted ? But since 
in meaning hinted, but not expressed,! Peter was representing the Church, 
what was given to him singly, was given to the Church, So then, Peter 
bore the figure of the Church : the Church is the bod}' of Christ. '|| What 
Augustin inculcates is plainly that the Church received the power of for- 
giveness, through Peter, who in his official capacity represented her, on 
account of the primacy of his apostleship. This does not imply that the 
keys, as symbols of governing power, were not given to Peter in a more 
special manner. 

St. Leo the Great is most eloquent and forcible in the exposition of 
the sacred text. He observes : " Christ having assumed him to a partici- 
pation in His indivisible unity, was pleased that he should be styled what 
He Himself was, saying : ' Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build 
My Church that the building of the eternal temple, by the wonderful 
gift of the grace of G-od, should rest on the solidity of the rock, strength- 
ening His Church by this firmness, so that neither human temerity could 
affect it, nor the gates of hell prevail against it. But whosoever attempts 



* Abundantiore gratia unus idemque primus apostoloruni. Ibidem. 

j Ibidem. j Personam gestet eccdesise. g In signifieatione. 

|j Serin, cxlix. de verbis Actuum Apost. torn. y. 706 B. 



THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 



55 



to infringe on his power, indulges excessive and impious presumption, in 
seeking to violate the most sacred strength of this rock, God, as we have 
said, being the builder/** This exposition loses nothing of its weight 
from the fact that St. Leo filled, at the time, the chair of Peter. His 
learning and sanctity,- the high esteem which he enjoyed among his con- 
temporaries, and the veneration with which his name has been transmitted 
to us, do not suffer us to consider him as influenced by personal interest, 
or pride of station, in expounding the sacred text. He spoke the truth in 
Christ, with no other view than that all should adore the divine wisdom 
and power manifested in the establishment of the Church. 

St. Leo freely admits that the power given to Peter was to be com- 
municated to the other apostles ; but insists that it was specially lodged in 
him for the great ends of Christian unity. " The privilege of this power 
did, indeed, pass to the other apostles, and the order of this decree reached 
all the rulers of the Church ; but not without purpose what is intended 
for all, is put into the hands of one."f Elsewhere he says : " The Lord 
hath willed that the mystery of this gift (of announcing the Grospel) should 
belong to the office of all the apostles, on the condition of its being chiefly 
seated in the most blessed Peter, the first of all the apostles, and from 
him, as it were from the head, it is His pleasure that His gifts should 
flow into the whole body, that whoever dares recede from the rock of Peter 
may know that He has no part in the divine mystery. ;; J 

The quotations hitherto submitted to the reader, show clearly that the 
promise recorded by St. Matthew, was understood by the fathers of the 
first five centuries, as implying special relations of Peter to the Church, 
as its foundation and ruler. It is in vain that Mr. Palmer asserts that 
some interpret it of the apostles generally ; for it will easily be seen that 
these fathers, as Ambrose and Augustin, whose words we have quoted, 
speak of the apostolic powers as declared in other passages, and that they 
apply and extend to the apostles the text in question, so far only as these 
powers are implied, without prejudice to the primacy of Peter, which they 
expressly affirm. The few who speak of Christ as the rock, for the most 
part use this figure without direct reference to the text of Matthew, for 
the purpose of declaring the immovable nature of the Church, of which 
Christ is the support j and when, like Augustin, they refer to this pas- 
sage, they otherwise acknowledge in unequivocal terms the high preroga- 
tive of the prince of the apostles. All who interpret it of the faith as 
confessed by Peter, perfectly harmonize with those who expound it of 
Peter himself, so that these two interpretations, which at first sight appear 
different, are in reality identical. It is worthy of remark, that before the 
rise of Arianism, no father explained the rock of the confession of Peter ; 
which interpretation was first suggested by the necessity of employing 
every available weapon against that impiety. It is also to be observed, 



* T. ii. op. col. 1315. 



j In anniv. sujb consecr. 



X Ep. 10. 



55 THE FATHERS' EXPOSITION OF THE PROMISE. 

that no father who declares faith to be the rock, expressly excludes Peter, 
while many positively mention him conjointly with the confession. The 
moral application and allegorical expositions of some can by no means 
weaken the literal exposition so forcibly delivered by the great body of the 
fathers. We can, therefore, fairly claim their general support in the 
maintenance of the primacy as divinely promised to Peter. In the words 
of Dr. Nevin, we may say : " The promise of our Saviour to Peter, is al- 
ways taken by the fathers in the sense that he was to be the centre of 
unity for the Church, and in the language of Chrysostom, to have the 
presidency of it throughout the world. Ambrose and Augustin both re- 
cognise this distinction over and over again in the clearest and strongest 
terms. ,; * 



* Art. Early Christianity, in Mercersburg Review, Sept. 1851. 



CHAPTER IV. 



IttstMmt at % §OT£g- 

The promise made by Christ to Peter, that He would make him the 
fundamental rock of His Church, and give him the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven, and the solemn charge addressed to him to confirm his brethren, 
prepare us for the bestowal of extraordinary power. The denial of his 
Divine Master, might, however, seem to be an insuperable obstacle to his 
elevation to this dignity : but his tears, which were bitter and abundant, 
washed away his prevarication. Christ, after His resurrection, appearing 
to him with Thomas, John and James, and two others, besides Nathaniel, 
of Cana in Galilee, was pleased to fulfil His promise, after He had first 
elicited from Peter repeated protestations of special love. He presented 
Himself to them all as they were fishing, and directed them to cast the 
net on the right side of the ship, assuring them that they should be suc- 
cessful. The verification of this assurance led John to recognise Him • 
and Peter, being made sensible of the presence of his Master, girded his 
coat about him. Then, as the other disciples came in the ship, drawing 
the net, and reached the shore, " Simon Peter went up, and drew the net 
to land, full of great fishes, one hundred and fifty-three. And although 
there were so many, the net was not broken."* It cannot be doubted, 
that by this miraculous draught was typified the wonderful conversion of 
nations by the apostles, with Peter at their head, acting under the com- 
mand of Jesus. The occasion was most opportune for declaring the office 
of Peter. " When, therefore, they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter : 
Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these?" Some have ab- 
surdly explained this question, as if Peter were asked, whether he loved 
his Lord more than the fish ; but this cannot be seriously advanced. The 
comparison is evidently referred to the persons present. Peter declares 
his affection : " He saith to Him : yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
Thee." This declaration was followed by the pastoral commission : " Feed 
My lambs that is, the tenderest, weakest portion of the flock, the little 
ones in Christ, the faithful who are as lambs in regard to those who have 
begotten them, or brought them forth in Christ. The question is renewed : 
" He saith to him again, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me ? He saith 



* John xxi. 11. 



"j" ftocxt ra dpvia ps. 
57 



58 



INSTITUTION OF THE PRIMACY. 



to Him : yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him : 
feed My lambs."* The commission is repeated, in a new form, as ap- 
pears from the Greek text. The former injunction regarded feeding, the 
present comprises the whole pastoral care — to tend, to watch over, to re- 
strain, to bring back the stray sheep, to remove the contagious, and to do 
all that a shepherd should do for his flock. " He saith to him the third 
time : Simon, son of John, iovest thou Me? Peter was grieved, because 
He saith to him the third time, lovest thou Me ? And he said to Him : 
Lord, Thou knowest all things : Thou knowest that I love Thee. He said 
to him : feed My sheep. "f Thus, on the manifestation of his tender love 
and enlightened faith, Peter receives the commission to feed the sheep of 
Christ, namely, those who are to the faithful as sheep to lambs, their 
parents in Christ. In the presence of the beloved disciple, and of James, 
Thomas and others, Peter receives a commission, the highest that could 
be given, by which he becomes, under Christ, the shepherd of the flock. 
The declaration of special love, which was demanded of him, shows that 
special power was to be imparted : the repetition of the injunction in 
various forms, manifests the intention of our Lord to communicate all ne- 
cessary power for feeding, tending and governing all His flock. 

Our Lord had foretold the union of Gentiles and Jews in His Church. 
" Other sheep I have," said He, " that are not of this fold : them also I 
must bring ; and they shall hear My voice : and there shall be made one 
fold and one shepherd. "J This was not to be accomplished by Himself 
personally, since He was not sent by His Father unless to the sheep that 
had strayed away of the house of Israel ; but by the ministry of His apos- 
tles. All His sheep were to be united in one fold, under the charge of 
Peter. 

Apart from all tradition, and on the strictest principles of critical exe- 
gesis, the superior authority of Peter is proved from the Scripture. TTe 
cannot suppose the keys of the kingdom, the confirming of the brethren, 
the feeding of the lambs and sheep, to denote no special authority. We 
cannot capriciously extend to the other apostles a promise, charge, and 
commission, addressed especially to Peter alone. Christ is the Good Shep- 
herd : He charges Peter to act in His stead. Thus, in withdrawing His 
sensible presence, He leaves Peter clothed with His authority, and indi- 
cates its kind and tender character by an image the most affecting. 

In very many circumstances our Lord by His actions signified the spe- 
cial power of Peter. From his bark He teaches the multitude : to HIM 
He gives the command to let down the net, and rewards his obedience 



* Hotuaive ra -po t 3ara fiov. The Vulgate interpreter read dpvia. The Greek term is taken 
for governing, as kings "were called shepherds of the people : -oifisveg See Homer, 

passim. The same verb is constantly used in the Septuagint to express the government 
of God, and of Christ. Ps. ii. 9 ; xxii. 2. Ezek. xxiv. 33. Isa. xi. 9. Mich. v. 2. 

j @6<jk£ ra -pdjSara. pov. J John X. 16. 



INSTITUTION OF THE PRIMACY. 



50 



by a miraculous draught of fishes : to him He promises that he shall 
henceforth catch men. He commands him to walk to Him on the waters, 
and stretches forth His hand to support him, when the weakness of the 
apostle's faith causes him to sink. He pays tribute for him, as well as for 
Himself. All these facts have forced themselves on the attention of the 
declared enemies of the primacy. Barrow supposes the excellent qualities 
of Peter for leadership to have disposed our Lord to grant him the prece- 
dency. "They," he observes, " probably might move our Lord Himself 
to settle, or at least to insinuate this order 5 assigning the first place to 
him, whom He knew most willing to serve Him, and most able to lead on 
the rest in His service. It is indeed observable, that upon all occasions 
our Lord signified a particular respect to him, before the rest of his col- 
leagues ; for to him more frequently than to any of them He directed His 
discourse ; unto him, by a kind of anticipation, He granted or promised 
those gifts and privileges, which He meant to confer on them all : him 
He did assume as spectator and witness of His glorious transfiguration ; 
him he picked out as companion and attendant on Him in His grievous 
agony ; his feet He first washed • to him He did first discover Himself 
after His resurrection, (as St. Paul implieth,) and with him then He did 
entertain most discourse ; in especial manner recommending to him the 
pastoral care of the Church ; by which manner of proceeding our Lord 
may seem to have constituted St. Peter the first in order among the apos- 
tles, or sufficiently to have hinted His mind for their direction, admonish- 
ing them by His example to render unto him a special deference."* After 
such admissions, the reader must be surprised to find Barrow denying all 
authoritative primacy in the apostle. 

St. Francis de Sales, with his ordinary simplicity and force, exhibits 
the privileges of the prince of the apostles, as insinuated under various 
images in the divine writings : "Is the Church likened unto a house? It 
is placed on the foundation of a rock, which is Peter. Will you represent 
it under the figure of a family ? You behold our Redeem er paying the tri- 
bute as its Master, and after Him comes Peter as His representative. Is 
the Church a bark ? Peter is its pilot ; and it is our Redeemer who in- 
structs him. Is the doctrine by which we are drawn from the gulf of sin 
represented by a fisher's net ? It is Peter who casts it ; it is Peter who 
draws it j the other disciples lend their aid ; but it is Peter that presents 
the fishes to our Redeemer. Is the Church represented by an embassy ? 
St. Peter is at its head. Do you prefer the figure of a kingdom ? St. 
Peter carries its keys. In fine, you will have it shadowed under the sym- 
bol of a flock and a fold ? St. Peter is the shepherd and universal pastor 
under Jesus Christ."")" 

The occasion of promising this power was the confession which Peter 
made of the divinity of Christ, and the declaration of greater love than 



* Barrow on the Supremacy. f Controverses de S. Franc, de Sales, disc. 42. 



GO INSTITUTION OF THE PRIMACY. 

that of the other apostles was required, before its collation ; yet the office 
was not merely personal. The reward was the greater, because it was to 
be perpetuated in his successors. The power promised was directed to the 
advantage of the Church, which was to last throughout ages : the charge 
given regarded all the sheep of Christ, who were to be gathered into His 
fold at any period of time. The image of a foundation presents the idea 
of permanent support, since no fabric can subsist if the foundation be re- 
moved : the kingdom of Christ must always have a ruler, bearing the 
keys, and exercising sovereign power under Christ; the brethren must 
always be confirmed in faith : the lambs and sheep of Christ at all times 
need tbe care, guidance, and protection of a shepherd, to keep them all in 
one sheepfold. Since the powers of hell cannot prevail against the Church, 
tbe fundamental authority of Peter can never cease : since the visible 
kingdom of Christ shall endure to the end of time, there must be always 
a viceroy governing in His name : since the prayer of Christ is always 
heard for His reverence, the faith of Peter can never fail : there shall be 
always one fold, and there shall be likewise one shepherd. If any thing 
be clear in Scripture, it is the promise of the primacy and its institution. 
" To thee/' says Christ, " I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven." 
"I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not : and thou being once 
converted, confirm thy brethren." Feed My lambs, feed My sheep." 
He distinguishes this apostle from the rest : " Blessed art thou, Simon 
Bar-jona." He addresses him repeatedly and emphatically : " Simon, 
Simon." He calls on him for special and reiterated declarations of at- 
tachment : " Dost thou love Me more than these V* As the powers given 
to the apostles generally are continued in their successors — as the authority 
to teach, baptize, and otherwise concur to the salvation of men by minis- 
terial functions, is perpetual ; so must the peculiar privileges of Peter be 
recognised in the occupants of his See. If among the apostles it was 
proper that one should preside, for the sake of order and unity, a leader is 
still more necessary for a body so numerous as their successors. A ruler 
is indispensable for a kingdom so extensive as the Church actually diffused 
throughout all nations, lest being divided, it be brought to desolation : a 
pastor for the whole flock is essential at all times, that the unity of the 
sheepfold may be maintained. Thus, by the very same line of argument 
by which we infer the perpetuity of the apostolic ministry, we are led to 
acknowledge the headship, or primacy, as a permanent institution of 
Christ. 

What, then, is the character of this primacy ? Limiting myself for the 
present to the sacred text, I answer, that it is a fundamental principle of 
church organization, having the same relation to the universal Church, as 
the foundation has to the building : it is a central authority uniting all 
the parts of the sacred edifice, which rest on it necessarily and inseparably. 
Peter was constituted the vicegerent of Christ, having received from Him 
the keys of the kingdom, and consequently a plenitude of authority, dele- 



INSTITUTION OF THE PRIMACY. 61 

gated, however, and subordinate, which his successor inherits. The pri- 
mate of the Church is bound to confirm his brethren in the faith, which 
he must maintain as originally delivered, opposing, by all the weight of 
his authority, every error adverse to its integrity. He is powerful for the 
truth : powerless against the truth. He must feed the lambs and sheep 
of Christ with salutary pastures : he must use pastoral vigilance, lest they 
stray away, and employ due care to reconduct to the fold those that have 
actually strayed. Since Christ represents Himself under the image of a 
good shepherd, in giving to Peter the command to feed His lambs and 
sheep, He imparts the highest authority under the most tender image. 

It is not difficult to reconcile the headship of Peter with that of Christ. 
The apostle tells us that Christ instituted the ministry, " that performing 
the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the 
head, Christ; from whom the whole body, compacted and fitly joined to- 
gether, by whatever joint supplieth, according to the operation in the 
measure of every part, niaketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of 
itself in charity."* Christ is clearly styled the head in this place, in a 
way in which Peter cannot be so designated. Every grace by which the 
mind is enlightened, the will moved, and the Church built up in faith and 
charity, is derived from Christ \ not from Peter, whose office is ministerial 
and external, and totally dependant on the supreme invisible head. 
" Christ is the head of the Church. He is the Saviour of His body/'f 
Who has ever thought of ascribing to Peter headship of this nature ? 
"Who has ever regarded him as the Saviour of the Church ? God the 
Father hath made Christ "head over all the Church, which is His body, 
and the fulness of Him, who is filled all in all. "J No one recognises Peter 
as head in this sense. Christ is " above all principality, and power, and 
virtue, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this 
world, but also in that which is to come."§ The like cannot be said of 
Peter, who, under Christ, was only the visible head of the Church on 
earth, governing it according to the principles which He taught, and in 
virtue of the authority which He vouchsafed to delegate. Whoever deems 
such authority derogatory to the headship of Christ, must consider the 
viceroy of a monarch an antagonist of his sovereign. 

The wisdom of Christ in appointing a ruler and pastor under Himself, 
to confirm and unite the brethren, is clearly apparent, Order can be 
maintained in a body of men only by some authority exercised by one, 
whatever be its origin, or its limits : which authority should be propor- 
tioned to the importance of the objects to be attained, and the number of 
persons to be directed or governed. A certain precedency of rank may 
suffice in a body, where objects dependent on the will of the members are 
at stake : but where high interests, independent of the fluctuating views 
of men, are involved, a binding authority, divinely constituted and 



* Eph. iv. 15. 



f Ibid. v. 23. 



% Epb. i. 22. 



I Eph. i. 21. 



62 



INSTITUTION OF THE PRIMACY. 



guarded, is necessary. Even among the apostles a certain precedency was 
enjoyed by Peter, while our Lord was present. When He had withdrawn 
from the earth, and the apostolic band was augmented by a large number 
of bishops, and the Church was spread throughout many nations, every 
appearance of unity would soon have vanished, had there not been a cen- 
tral authority, around which all might gather. This became still more 
necessary, when the apostles closed their career, and their successors were 
multiplied, and scattered to the utmost bounds of civilization, and beyond 
them. Confusion of tongues must have ensued, had there not been a 
divinely constituted leader. The professed subjection of all to Christ 
could not have restrained the vagaries of human opinion, or preserved the 
harmony of believers. "Without an infinitude of miracles, in proportion 
to the number of professors, and the diffusion of religion, there would 
have been no order, no unity, no faith ; and the evidence which our Lord 
referred to, for convincing the world that He was sent by the Father, 
namely, the union of His disciples in the profession of revealed truth,* 
would have been utterly wanting. While Christ was visibly present, the 
disciples gathered around Him, and were one family, He being the Head ; 
when He was about to withdraw His visible presence, He left Peter at 
the head of his brethren, pastor of the fold, and ruler of the kingdom, 
and consecrating in his person the principle of unity, He rendered his 
office perpetual in his successors. To this divine arrangement we owe the 
preservation of the revealed truths, and the unity of the Church. 

To all the apostles Christ promised the power of binding and loosing, 
which He conferred on all, by authorizing them to remit or retain sins. 
He gave to all a mission like that which He had received from His 
Father. He sent all of them to preach His Gospel to every creature, and 
ordered them to teach all nations all things whatsoever He had de- 
livered ; promising them His effectual assistance even to the end of time. 
The apostolic power of each one was, like that of Peter, coextensive with 
the world : but Peter was pastor, ruler and superior. They were all equal 
in the episcopal character, and even in apostolic authority, with this dif- 
ference, that their power was subordinate to his, and to be exercised ne- 
cessarily in connection and harmony with his, that even in their persons 
unity might be exhibited. His universal jurisdiction was a permanent 
attribute of his office, as pastor and ruler, to descend and continue for ever 
in his successors \ while theirs was a personal prerogative, of which the 
bishops would partake, without enjoying severally its plenitude. This 
distinction is gathered from the marked manner in which Christ addressed 
Peter individually, while He promised and gave authority to the others 
in common, Peter being necessarily included. Bossuet beautifully ob- 
serves : " The power divided among many imports its restriction : confer- 
red on one alone, over all and without exception, it bears the evidence of 



* John xviL 21. 



INSTITUTION OF THE PRIMACY. 



03 



its plenitude. All receive the same power, but not in the same degree, 
nor to the same extent. Jesus Christ commences by the chief, and in the 
person of the chief develops all His power — in order that we should learn 
that the ecclesiastical authority, being originally centred in one individual, 
has been diffused only on the condition that it should always be reflected 
back on the principle of its unity, and that all they who share in it should 
be inseparably connected with that See, which is the common centre of 
all churches."* 



* Discours sur l'unite de 1'Eglise, 1 par. 



CHAPTER V. 



The charge given by our Lord to Peter, to feed His lambs and sheep, was 
understood by the early fathers to imply the communication of the high- 
est authority under Christ Himself. Origen, speaking of the excellence 
of charity, remarks, that our Lord required the profession of it from Peter, 
as a condition for receiving supreme authority in the Church : u When 

THE SUPREME POWER TO FEED THE SHEEP WAS GIVEN TO PETER, AND 

the Church was founded on him, as on a rock,* the declaration of 
no other virtue than charity was required."f 

In his admirable treatise on the unity of the Church, Cyprian insists, 
with great earnestness, on the provision made against heresy and schism 
by the promise made, and the pastoral power subsequently given to Peter. 
Deploring the havoc of souls made by the enemy of man, who transforms 
himself into an angel of light, and puts forward his ministers as ministers 
of justice, he says : " This comes to pass, beloved brethren, because re- 
course is not had to the source of truth, and the head is not sought after, 
and the doctrine of the Heavenly Teacher is not regarded. If any one 
consider and examine these things, there is no need of a lengthy treatise 
and of arguments. The proof of faith is easy and compendious, because 
true. The Lord speaks to Peter : ' I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and 
on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it. And to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound also in 
heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed also in 
heaven.' And again, after His resurrection, He says to him : ' Feed My 
sheep.' Upon that one individual He builds His Church, and to him He 
commits His sheep to be fed. And although, after His resurrection, He 
gives to all the apostles equal power, and says : ' As the Father hath sent 
Me, I also send you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall 
forgive, they shall be forgiven them ; whose sins you shall retain, they 
shall be retained ;' yet, in order to manifest unity, He establishes, by His 
authority, the origin of the same unity, which begins from one. Even 
the other apostles were certainly what Peter was, being endowed with 



* Some manuscripts have : super terram — on the earth, 
f In Ep. ad Rom. i. v. n. 10. 

64 



EXPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION. 



65 



equal participation of honor and power ; but the beginning proceeds from 
unity, a?id the primacy is given to Peter, that the Church of Christ may 
be shown to be one, and the chair one. All are pastors, and the flock is 
shown to be one, which is fed by the apostles with one accord, that the 
Church of G-od may be shown to be one. This one Church the Holy 
Grhost also designates, speaking in the person of our Lord in the Canticle 
of Canticles, ' My dove is one, My perfect one, she is the only one of her 
mother, the chosen one of her who bore her.' Does he who does not hold 
the unity of the Church, imagine that he holds the faith ? Does he who 
opposes and resists the Church, — who deserts the chair of Peter, on whom 
the Church loas founded, presume that he is in the Church, while the 
blessed apostle Paul teaches this same thing, and shows the sacrament of 
unity, saying : ' One body and one Spirit, one hope of your vocation, one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one G-od V "* 

The words which I have put in italics were omitted by Erasmus in his 
edition of the works of St. Cyprian, published in 1521 : but restored by 
Paul Manutius in an edition made from manuscripts of great value, in 
1563. They are quoted as far back as the year 582, by Pelagius II. in 
his second epistle to the Bishops of Istria, which forms a strong presump- 
tion in their favor, and they accord with the scope of the writer, and with 
his language on several other occasions. " Neander remarks, no less than 
Mohler," as Dr. Nevin reminds us, that " the clauses contain nothing that 
is not elsewhere affirmed by Cyprian, even more distinctly than here."f 

The object of the whole work is to prove the inviolable unity of the 
Church; and in the passage just quoted, St. Cyprian shows how the efforts 
of Satan to estrange men from the Church, by corrupting their faith, or 
engaging them in schism, may be promptly and effectually defeated. He 
refers to the texts in which our Lord addresses Peter, and makes him spe- 
cial promises. He admits that, in other circumstances, similar promises 
and equal power were given to all the apostles : " yet to manifest unity 
He established, by His authority, the origin of the same unity, which be- 
gins from one." This cannot mean that Christ merely insinuated and 
recommended unity by thus beginning with Peter j since Cyprian insists 
throughout that unity is enjoined, and is essential to the Church : it must 
mean that Christ established in Peter the principle and means of unity. 
" The other apostles were certainly what Peter was, being endowed with 
an equal participation of honor and power the apostolic office, dignity, 
and jurisdiction were the same in all, but there was subordination for the 
maintenance of unity. The scope and the whole context show, that Cy- 
prian recognised in Peter a central and connecting power, whereby truth 
should be preserved and order maintained. 

Barrow himself admits that the African fathers generally considered St. 
Peter to have received from Christ a primacy of order, which he styles a 



* L. de Unit. Eccl. 



| Art. Cyprian, M. E. July, 1852. 

5 



66 



EXPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION. 



womanish privilege, as in truth it might be styled, were mere precedence 
in rank given him ; but this is to blaspheme Christ, who cannot, without 
impiety, be supposed to have bestowed an idle distinction. It is strange 
how this learned opponent of the supremacy, through a desire to weaken 
the authorities which support it, should have allowed himself to speak dis- 
respectfully of the luminaries of the African Church. " St. Cyprian," he 
says, " hath a reason for it somewhat more subtile and mystical, supposing 
our Lord did confer on him a preference of this kind to his brethren (who 
otherwise in power and authority were equal to him) that he might inti- 
mate and recommend unity to us ; and the other African doctors (Optatus 
and St. Austin) do commonly harp on the same notion !"* He adds, 
that the fathers generally seem to countenance this primacy ! Thus does 
he virtually abandon the cause which he labors to defend. 

The same explanation of the texts in question constantly recurs through- 
out the works of this eloquent prelate. In his book on the virginal state, 
he observes : " Peter, to whom the Lord recommends the feeding 

AND PROTECTION OF HlS SHEEP, ON "WHOM He PLACED AND FOUNDED 

the Church, denies that he has silver or gold, but says that he is rich in 
the grace of Christ, "f 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, speaking of the witnesses of the resurrec- 
tion, thus distinguishes Peter from the rest : " Peter testifies it, who be- 
fore indeed denied Him, but who, after having confessed Him thrice, was 
ordered to feed His spiritual sheep. "J It is clear that Cyril considered 
this command to have been given specially to Peter. 

In his golden work on the priesthood, by which term he designates the 
episcopal office, Chrysostom argues from the charge given by Christ to 
Peter, to feed His sheep, that this is to be the practical evidence of the 
love which we bear to our Redeemer. " Speaking with the prince of the 
apostles, He says : i Peter, lovest thou Me V and Peter answering affirma- 
tively, He adds : 1 If thou lovest Me, feed My sheep/ He designed to 
teach both Peter, and us all, His great benevolence and love for His 
Church : that by this means we also might cheerfully assume the care and 
charge of it. For why did He shed His blood ? Certainly that He might 
purchase the sheep, the care of which He committed to Peter, and to his 
successors. § Justly, therefore, Christ thus spoke: '"Who then is the 
faithful and prudent servant whom the Lord placed over His family?' "|| 
The inference which Chrysostom draws from the text does not imply any 
thing inconsistent with its special application to Peter, whom he recog- 
nises as " endowed by Christ with special authority far surpassing the 
other apostles : for He says : ' Peter, dost thou love Me more than all 
these ?' "If Again, in his commentary on the Gospel of St. John, when 
expressly engaged in the exposition of the text, he asks : " Why does He 



* A Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy, Suppos. 1. f L. de habitu virginurc, $ x. 
J Cat. xiv. 2 Totf psr' ekeivov . |] L. ii. de saeerdotio. ^"Ibidem. 



EXPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION. 



67 



address Peter concerning the sheep, passing by the others ? He was the 

CHIEF OF THE APOSTLES, AND MOUTH OF THE DISCIPLES, AND HEAD OF 
THAT BODY : ON WHICH ACCOUNT PAUL ALSO WENT UP TO SEE HIM, IN 

preference to the others. Showing him at the same time, that he 
must have confidence hereafter, He cancels the guilt of his denial, and 

GIVES HIM THE PRESIDENCY OVER THE BRETHREN. . . . And He says : 

' because thou lovest Me, preside over the brethren.' "* 

The pastoral and governing authority of Peter is clearly set forth by St. 
Ambrose in many places, in which he treats of the commission given to 
him by Christ, to feed His sheep. In his forty-sixth sermon he observes, 
" When he was thrice questioned by the Lord : ' Simon, dost thou love 
Me?' he answered thrice, 'Lord, Thou Imowest that I love Thee.' The 
Lord says : £ Feed My sheep/ This was said thrice j the triple repetition 
serving to compensate for his former fault : for he who had denied the 
Lord thrice, confesses Him thrice, and as often as he had contracted guilt 
by his delinquency, he gains favor by his love. See, therefore, how pro- 
fitable to Peter was his weeping. Before he wept, he fell ; after he wept, 
he was chosen, and he who had been a prevaricator before, was made a 
pastor after his tears, and he received the government of others, who be- 
fore had not governed himself." In his exposition of the 118th Psalm, 
he says : "On this account Christ enjoined on Peter to feed His flock, 
and do the will of his Lord, because He knew his love."f In his com- 
mentary on Luke, Ambrose says of Peter: "He is afflicted because he is 
questioned the third time, Dost thou love Me ? But the Lord does not 
doubt : He interrogates him, not to ascertain the fact, but to teach him, 
whom, when He was about to be elevated to heaven, He left to us as 
the vicar of His love. For thus you have : ( Simon, son of J ohn, dost 
thou love Me V 'Thou knowest, Lord, that I love Thee.' Jesus said to 
him, ' Feed My lambs.' And because he alone of all professes his love, 
he is preferred to all. "J Peter, then, was made pastor and governor, 
and vicar of Jesus Christ, to perform toward men the kind offices which 
divine love inspired, and was preferred to all. 

The disciple of Ambrose does not differ from his master in the inter- 
pretation of the sacred text. Augustin writes : " For Peter himself, to 
whom He intrusted His sheep, as to another self, He willed to make one 
with Himself, that so He might intrust His sheep to him j that He might 
be the head, the other bear the figure of the body, that is, the Church ; 
and that, as man and wife, they might be two in one flesh." § This gives 
us the highest idea of the relation of Peter to Christ and to the flock. In 
intrusting him with the charge of the sheep, Christ made him as another 



* In c. xxi. Joan. horn, lxxxvii. t. iii. ' Oti si (pi\eis {it -poia-aao ruv dc£\<pa>v. Mr. Palmer 
translates : ' If thou lovest Me, protect the brethren.' Treatise on the Church, part vii. 
ch. 1. vol. ii. p. 461. It signifies to preside over -poiTw-rj, qui imperium habent. 

f Euar. xiii. J In Luc. 1. x. n. 175. 

I Serm. xlvi. de past, in Ezek. 31. torn. v. 240 F. 



\ 



68 



EXPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION. 



self, putting him in His own place. Peter is said to represent the Church; 
but evidently in his official character, as pastor of the whole flock, and in 
this respect he becomes, as it were, one with Christ, as the Church is one 
with her Divine spouse, by the mysterious union of faith and love. Else- 
where, Augustin teaches that the other apostles were also commissioned 
to feed the flock, because all were sent to teach and administer the sacra- 
ments, but lie is careful to mark the prerogative of Peter : " For deserv- 
edly, after His resurrection, the Lord delivered His sheep to Peter him- 
self to feed; for lie was not the only one among the disciples who was 
thought worthy to feed the Lord's sheep. But when Christ speaks to one, 
unity is commended ; and to Peter above all, because Peter is the first 
among the apostles/'* St. Augustin justly infers the authority which all 
bishops have received, to feed the sheep of Christ, since the power granted 
to him was communicable to others : " Therefore hath the Lord com- 
mended His sheep to us, because He commended them to Peter."f 

That Peter received charge of the sheep of Christ, in a special manner, 
is declared by Augustin, when enumerating the motives which retained 
him in the Church : " I am retained," said he, " by the succession of 
priests from the very See of the apostle Peter, to whom our Lord, after 
His resurrection, intrusted the feeding of His sheep, down to the actual 
bishop."! 

St. Leo beautifully expounds the pastoral commission in connection 
with the charge to confirni the brethren, and the prayer of Christ for its 
fulfilment : u Since, therefore, beloved, we see such a protection divinely 
granted to us, reasonably and justly do we rejoice in the merits and dig- 
nity of our chief, rendering thanks to the Eternal King, our Redeemer, 
the Lord Jesus Christ, for having given so great a power to him whom He 
made chief of the whole Church, that if any thing, even in our time, be 
rightly done and rightly ordered by us, it is to be ascribed to his working, 
to his guidance, unto whom it was said : ' And thou, being once converted, 
confirm thy brethren :' and to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, in 
answer to the triple profession of perpetual love, thrice said with mystical 
intent, { Feed My sheep/ And this, beyond a doubt, the pious shepherd 
doth even now, and fulfils the charge of his Lord ; strengthening us with 
his exhortations, and not ceasing to pray for us, that we may be overcome 
by no temptation. "§ The great power granted to Peter especially, and to 
his successors, is strongly declared by the holy pontiff, who justly ascribes 
the constancy in faith which distinguishes the occupants of the See to the 
prayer of Christ, that the faith of Peter might not fail. 

St. Eucherius, who occupied the See of Lyons toward the middle of the 



* Serm. ccxevi. in nat. Apost. torn. v. 1195 F. 

f Ibidem. Tom. v. 1199 D, 1202 F. 

j L. contra epist. Manichaei, quam vocaiit fundamenti. 

\ In Anniv. Conseer. 



EXPOSITION OF THE COMMISSION. 



CD 



fifth century, in his discourse on the feast of the apostles, Peter and Paul, 
observes that our Lord intrusted to Peter, first the lambs, and then the 
sheep, because He constituted him not only a shepherd, but the shepherd 
of shepherds. Peter therefore feeds the lambs : he feeds the sheep like- 
wise; he feeds the young, and feeds the mothers : he rules both subjects 
and prelates. He is then shepherd over all, because besides lambs and 
sheep there is nothing in the Church." 

St. Gregory the Great writes : " To all who know the Gospel, it is 
manifest that the charge of the whole Church was intrusted by the 
voice of the Lord to the holy apostle Peter, chief of all the apostles. For 
to him is said : Peter, Iovest thou Me ? Feed My sheep."* This com- 
mission, therefore, implied the charge of the whole Church. 

Although I have generally confined my quotations to the fathers of the 
six first ages, I cannot refrain from giving the reader the benefit of the 
reasoning of St. Bernard, " the last of the fathers in age, but equal to 
the first in glory," as Mr. Allies describes him. Addressing Pope Euge- 
nius, he says : u You are he to whom the keys were given j to whom the 
sheep were intrusted. There are, indeed, likewise, other gate-keepers of 
heaven, and shepherds of the flocks ; but you have inherited both titles in 
a sense far different and more sublime. They have, each of them, their 
respective flocks severally assigned to them : all have been intrusted to 
you, as one flock to one man. Nor are you shepherd of the sheep alone, 
but of the shepherds also; the one shepherd of all. Do you ask me how 
I prove this ? From the word of the Lord. For to which I do not say of 
the bishops, but of the apostles themselves, were the sheep committed so 
absolutely and unreservedly ? t If thou lovest Me, Peter, feed My sheep/ 
What sheep ? The people of this or that district, city, or kingdom ? ' My 
sheep/ He says. Who does not manifestly see that He did not particu- 
larize any, but assigned them all to him ? Xone are excepted, where no 
distinction is made. The other disciples were perchance present, when 
intrusting all to one, He recommended unity to all, in one flock and one 
shepherd : according to that passage : 1 My dove is one, My beautiful one, 
My perfect one/ "f This exposition, which is strictly literal, is fully sus- 
tained by the testimonies of the early fathers, which I have already quoted, 
as well as by the acts of pastoral authority exercised by Peter, and re- 
corded in the divine writings. 



* Lib. v. ep. xx. 



f L. ii. de Consider, c. viii. 



CHAPTER VI. 



It is impossible not to be struck with the prominent part which Peter 
acted in the establishment of the Church. While the disciples were 
awaiting the fulfilment of the promise of Christ, and preparing by prayer 
for the coming of the Paraclete, Peter arose, and proposed to fill the va- 
cancy which the fall of Judas had occasioned. Under divine illumination 
he unfolds the meaning of the sacred oracles, which predicted the treach- 
ery of this apostle, and directed that another should take his bishopric : 
he determines the qualifications of the successor : and if he does not him- 
self choose the individual, it is from no want of power, but to give a laud- 
able example of its moderate exercise. This condescension is justly ad- 
mired by the eloquent Bishop of Constantinople : " Being fervent and 
intrusted by Christ with the care of the flock, and being the leader of the 
band, he is always the first to speak. Why did he not himself alone be- 
seech Christ to give him some one in the place of Judas ? Why do not 
the brethren of themselves undertake the election ? See how he does all 
things with the general consent, nothing arbitrarily, nothing imperiously. 
Brethren, he says. Since the Lord called his disciples brethren, still more 
should he style them such. Wherefore he addressed them, all being pre- 
sent. Behold the dignity of the Church, and its angelic state. Why does 
he confer with them on this matter ? Lest it become a subject of dispute, 
and they fall into dissensions. He leaves the choice to the judgment of 
the multitude, thus securing their regard for the objects of their choice, 
and freeing himself from jealousy. Could not Peter himself have 
chosen the individual ? By all means : but he abstains from doing 
it, lest he should appear to indulge partiality. He is the first to proceed in 
this affair, because all have been delivered over into his hands : 
for to him Christ said : Thou being once converted, confirm thy bre- 
thren."* It is gratifying to be able to show in what light this act was 
viewed by so bright an ornament of the Greek Church — one of the most 
illustrious men of antiquity — the occupant of the chair of the imperial 
city, the new Rome. In the conduct of Peter on this occasion, Chrysos- 
tom recognises a splendid instance of the moderate use of supreme power. 

A still more manifest exercise of the high office of Peter, as guardian 



70 



* Chrysost. horn. iii. in .1 cap. Act. 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



71 



of the faith, occurs in the history of the first Council of Jerusalem. Great 
excitement was caused at Antioch by certain Judaizing Christians, who 
insisted that the converts from the Gentiles should be subjected to cir- 
cumcision and the legal observances. " Paul and Barnabas had no small 
contest with them,"* without being able to induce all to acquiesce in their 
judgment; wherefore it was determined that they "and certain others of 
the other side, should go up to the apostles and priests to Jerusalem about 
this question/' " Accordingly the apostles and ancients came together to 
consider of this matter, and when there was much disputing, Peter rising 
up said to them : Brethren, you know that in former days God made 
choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of 
the Gospel, and believe. And God, who knoweth the hearts, gave them 
testimony, giving to them the Holy Ghost, as well as to us : and made no 
difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, 
therefore, why tempt you God to put a yoke upon the necks of the dis- 
ciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear ? But by the 
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we believe to be saved, even as they." The 
result of this address is worthy of attention : " All the multitude held their 
peace. "\ There was great contention previously at Antioch, notwithstand- 
ing the reverence due to the apostolic character in Paul and Barnabas; it 
is renewed in the Council ; when Peter, rising up, reminds them that he 
had been chosen to announce the Gospel to the Gentiles, and that God had 
given evidence of His favor toward them; he reproaches them for seeking 
to burden them unnecessarily with the multifarious observances of the 
ceremonial law, and declares the great principle of faith in J esus Christ, as 
the only foundation of hope, for Jew or Gentile. No sooner has he spoken 
than all acquiesce : no murmur, no dissenting voice is heard : all opposi- 
tion ceases : and whoever rises to speak, only confirms, like Paul and 
Barnabas, by the narrative of miraculous facts, what Peter had declared, 
of the favor shown by God to the Gentiles ; or, like James, refers to the 
prophecies, adding the suggestion J of measures to be decreed, that the 
principle might be carried into successful execution. I do not see how 
any man can read the simple history of this controversy, by the inspired 
writer, without perceiving the great weight of Peter's authority in its ter- 
mination. The letter of the Council drawn up in the name of the apos- 
tles and ancients, which expresses the principle laid down by Peter, and 
the practical measure suggested by J ames, is declared to emanate from the 
Holy Ghost : "it hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us."§ The 
writers of antiquity speak of it as the sentence or decree of Peter. Ter- 
tullian describes it as the exercise of his power of binding and loosing : 

* Acts xv. 2. f Ibid. xv. 2. 

J Kpivw, " I judge," is the simple expression of sentiment, whether authoritative, or 
void of authority. See Thucydid. iv. 60. It corresponds to the Latin censeo. 
§ Acts xv. 28. 



72 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



" the decree of Peter loosed such things of the law as were set aside, and 
bound fast such as were retained."* St. Jerom calls Peter the author 
of this decree ;f and the celebrated Teeodoret, Bishop of Cyr. speaks of 
the controversy as a matter referred by Paul to Peter, that by his au- 
thority it might be definitely settled. Writing to Pope Leo, he says : •■ If 
Paul, who was the herald of truth, the organ of the Holy Spirit, had re- 
course to the great Peter, in order to obtain a decision from him concern- 
ing the observances of the law, for those who disputed at Antioch on this 
subject; with much greater reason we, who are abject and weak, have 
recourse to your Apostolic See, that we may receive from you remedies for 
the wounds of the churches, for it is fit that in all things you should be 
first, since your throne is adorned with many prerogatives. "J Cave, the 
learned Anglican critic, explains the words of Paul, that ''he went to 
Jerusalem to see Peter," of his going up on this occasion, " Peter being 
the leading character in the Council." § 

St. Chrysostom calls our attention to the wisdom with which Peter 
permitted the discussion, before he interposed his authority: " See," saya 
he, "he allows the inquiry and dispute to go on, and then he himself 
speaks." || As an evidence of the harmony and condescension which pre- 
vailed in the Council, he remarks that Paul was allowed to speak after 
Peter had pronounced judgment : " See, Paul speaks after Peter, and no 
one closes his mouth. Even Barrow cannot dissemble the prominent 
part which St. Peter bore in this Council and in apostolic assemblies 
generally : " At the consultation," he observes, " about supplying the 
place of Judas, he rose up, proposed, and pressed the matter. At the 
convention of the apostles and elders, about resolving the debate concern- 
ing observance of Alosaical institutions, he first rose up, and declared his 
sense. In the promulgation of the Gospel, and defence thereof, before 
the Jewish rulers, he did assume the conduct, and constantly took upon 
him to be the speaker ; the rest standing by him, implying assent, and 
ready to avow his word."** 

It has pleased the Holy Spirit to leave on record only a few of the cir- 
cumstances connected with this model of Councils : which, however, suffi- 
ciently show that Peter either called the Council, or assented to its con- 
vocation ■ that he spoke with authority and effect, silencing all disputation 
by his discourse ; and that the decree was in strict conformity with his 
judgment. The forms are of little importance where the authority is fully 



* L. de pudicitia. 

f Principem bujus fuisse decreti. S. Hieron. Aug. Ep. 45, alias xi. inter August T. S, 
col. 172, torn. ii. J Ad Leonem. Ep. cxiiL 

§ Petrum ibi eonvenit, occasione, ut videtur concilii apostolici — cujus Petrus pars magna 
fdit. Scec. Ap. p. 6. 

]] S. Chrys. hom. xxii. in c. xv. Act. Ap. p. 259, torn. iii. Edit. Paris, 1657. 

*~ Horn, xxxiii. p. 260. A Treatise of tbe Pope's Supremacy. Supposition 1. 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



73 



respected and admitted. To be Prince and Primate in the Church of 
God, it was not necessary that he should stand alone, separated from his 
colleagues in the apostleship and episcopacy, and resting solely on the 
prerogative of his station. It is delightful to see him in the Council of 
his brethren, causing the ardor of disputation to subside by authoritative 
instruction, and enlightening the minds of his colleagues, and of the faith- 
ful, by unfolding to them the oracles of God. The decree which expresses 
his judgment, and that of his colleagues, as well as the faith of the whole 
Church, is no way derogatory to his high prerogative. 

The eloquent Bishop of Meaux presents, at one view, the various cir- 
cumstances in which Peter appears foremost : " Peter," says he, " appears 
the first on all occasions : the first to confess the faith ; the first to express 
his obligation of love ; the first of all the apostles who saw Christ after 
His resurrection, as he was the first to bear testimony to this fact before 
all the people. We find him first, when there was question of filling up 
the number of the apostles ) the first who confirmed the faith by a miracle, 
the first to convert the Jews, the first to receive the Gentiles; in short, 
every thing covurs to establish his supremacy."* Potter remarks : " Our 
Lord appeared to Peter after His resurrection, before the rest of the apos- 
tles ; and, before this, He sent the message of His resurrection to him in 
particular." Having specified the various acts of Peter after the ascension 
of our Lord, he concludes thus : " From these and other examples which 
occur in the Scriptures, it is evident that St. Peter acted as chief 
of the college of apostles, and so he is constantly described by the 
primitive writers of the Church, who call him the Head, the President, 
the Prolocutor, the Chief, the Foreman of the apostles, with several other 
titles of distinction. "\ Even Calvin, in endeavoring to meet the argu- 
ment in favor of the primacy, drawn from the general visitation of the 
churches J by Peter, admits the fact : " Granting that Peter was the chief 
apostle, as the Scripture often shows, does it follow," he asks, "that he 
was the head of the world ?"§ 

Against facts which so strongly mark the superior authority of Peter, a 
term of equivocal import used by the sacred historian is sometimes ob- 
jected. " When the apostles who were in Jerusalem had heard that 
Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and 
John." 1 1 To send ordinarily supposes the superiority of him who sends; 
but the term is often used, where solicitation, counsel, and the expression 
of desire are only meant. When the tribes of Ruben and Gad, and half 
the tribe of Manasses, had erected an altar near the Jordan, the children 



* Discours sur l'unite de l'Eglise. 

f On Church Government, p. 72, 74. J Acts ix. 32. 

$ In locum. This qualified concession is very different from that admission -which De 
Maistre most unaccountably ascribes to him, by applying to the Bishop of Rome what 
Calvin says of the Jewish High-Priest. Du Pape, ch. ix. Calv. Inst. vi. §11. 

|1 Acts viii. 14. 



74 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY OF ST. PETER. 



of Israel " sent to them into the land of Galaad, Phinees, the son of 
Eleazar the priest, and ten princes with him, one of every tribe."* This 
mission derogated in no degree from the high dignity of the priesthood, 
since it was doubtless a proposal made and accepted, rather than a com- 
mand given with authority. When the dispute concerning the ceremonial 
law arose at Antioch, " they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and cer- 
tain others of the other side, should go up to the apostles and priests to 
Jerusalem, about this question. This language is certainly as strong, 
at least, as if it were said : " They sent Paul and Barnabas and yet no 
one thence infers that these apostles were inferior to the faithful, at whose 
solicitation they undertook this journey. The apostles at Jerusalem sent 
Peter and John to Samaria, by urging the expediency of the visit, not by 
a positive injunction : for no one pretends that these apostles were inferior 
in authority to the rest, as they certainly would have been, if they had 
acted under a positive command. 

The condescension of St. Peter, in explaining the motives of his con- 
duct to the disciples who murmured against him, on account of his having 
admitted Cornelius and his family into the Church, is perfectly consistent 
with his official supremacy. Superiors cannot prevent the murmurs of 
their subjects, or silence them effectually, by an appeal to their own au- 
thority. Persuasion must often be employed to convince them that the 
exercise of power is not capricious, or ill-advised. But if the faithful 
knew Peter to be supreme ruler of the Church on earth, it is said they 
would not have dared question the wisdom of his acts. It did not, indeed, 
become them to question it : yet since the Israelites of old murmured 
against Moses, whose mission was proved by stupendous prodigies, need 
we wonder that some of the first believers ventured to dispute the pro- 
priety of the course pursued by Peter ? The prejudices of nations do not 
always yield instantaneously to religious influences, and the distinction of 
castes is not easily forgotten. The Jews regarded the heathens with an 
aversion bordering on abhorrence, so that with the evidence before them 
of the communication of the gifts of the Holy Ghost to Cornelius and his 
family, they were filled with amazement. St. Gregory the Great de- 
rives from the conduct of Peter, on this occasion, a lesson of humility : 
" When Peter was blamed by the faithful, had he regarded the authority 
which he had received in the Holy Church, he might have answered, that 
the sheep should not dare reprove the shepherd, to whom they had been 
intrusted. But if, on the complaint of the faithful, he had made mention 
of his own power, he would not truly have been the teacher of meekness. 
He appeased them, therefore, in an humble manner, and in the case for 
which they blamed him, he even brought forward witnesses : ' These six 
brethren came also with me.' Since then the pastor of the Church, the 
prince of the apostles, he who performed in an extraordinary manner signs 



* Josue xxii. 13, 14. 



f Acts xy. 2. 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



75 



and miracles, did not disdain humbly to give an explanation of the con- 
duct for which he was blamed, how much more should we who are sin- 
ners, when we are blamed for any thing, be ready to appease our censors 
by humble explanations 

The strongest objection adduced against the superior authority of Peter 
is the resistance made to him by Paul, and the rebuke given him on ac- 
count of his declining familiar intercourse with the converted Gentiles, 
through fear of offending the Jews who had recently arrived at Antioch. 
I have elsewhere stated the doubts entertained by some learned men as to 
the identity of Cephas with the apostle :f but waiving this critical point, 
I see nothing in bold remonstrance, such as Paul used, inconsistent with 
the supremacy of him to whom it was addressed. The matter in question 
was one of mere prudence and expediency, where offence was sure to be 
given, whichever course might be pursued ; and Cephas having adopted a 
line of conduct offensive to the Gentiles, and prejudicial to the liberty 
which we have in Christ, Paul, prompted by zeal for the Gentile converts, 
remonstrated in strong language, and in a public manner : " When Cephas 
was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was blame- 
able — when I saw that they walked not uprightly unto the truth of the * 
Gospel, I said to Cephas, before them all : If thou, being a Jew, livest 
after the manner of the Gentiles, and not of the Jews, how dost thou 
compel the Gentiles to follow the way of the Jews ?" J What the apostle 
here calls loalking not uprightly unto the truth of the Gospel, he terms 
likewise dissimulation, meaning plainly a course inconsistent with the in- 
genuous and independent avowal of the great principle of Gospel liberty : 
not a betrayal of divine truth, by teaching erroneous doctrine. No one 
pretends that either apostle deviated from the faith, or that Paul reproved 
Peter, as a superior checks an inferior. "Paul reproved Peter," says 
Tertullian, " for no other reason, however, than the change of his mode 
of living, which he varied according to the class of persons with whom he 
associated; not for any corruption of divine truth. "§ Augtjstin, speak- 
ing of this fact, admires the intrepidity of Paul and the humility of Peter : 
" A just liberty," he says, " is to be admired in Paul, and holy humility 
in Peter." || Gregory the Great cries out: " Behold, he is reproved 
by his inferior, and he does not disdain to receive the reproof : he does not 
remind him, that he has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven."^" 

The respect of Paul for Peter is evident from this same epistle ) for, al- 
though, in order to convince the Galatians of the divine origin of the doc- 
trine which he delivered, he states that those who appeared to be pillars 
in the Church, contributed nothing to his instruction, and that on his con- 



* L. xi. ep. xiv. 

f Letters on the Primacy, p. 51, and Theologia Dogmatica, vol. i. p. 157. See also 
Dissertazione 32 su Cefa ripreso da S. Paolo, nella raccolta del Padre F. A. Zaccaria. 
% Gal ii. 11, 14. $ L. v. contra Marcion, c. iii. 

|| Ep. lxxxii. alias xxii. \ L. ii. in Ezech. hoin. xviii. 



76 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



version lie had not gone to Jerusalem to the apostles, who preceded him 
in the profession of the faith, he adds : " Three years after I came to 
Jerusalem to see Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days."* This visit 
is justly considered by St. Chrysostom to be an evidence of the high re- 
gard of Paul for the official character of Peter. "Peter/' he observes, 
" was the organ and prince of the apostles : on which account Paul went 
up to see him, in preference to the rest." f Paul, indeed, did not go with 
a view to obtain instruction, for having been favored with a divine revela- 
tion, he entertained no doubt whatever of the correctness of his doctrine : 
he was equal in the apostolic dignity to Peter : and he may have been 
greater in personal qualifications and merit; yet he went to him as to a 
superior, honoring the ofiice which he held by divine appointment. 
" After so many illustrious actions, although he stood in no need of Peter, 
or of his instruction, being equal in dignity to him,J (for I shall say no 
more,)§ he goes up to him as to a superior and elder, and he had no other 
motive for the visit, but merely to see Peter. Remark how he pays them 
(the apostles) due honor, and regards himself not only as no better, but 
not even as equal to them. This is evident from his journey; for as 
many of our brethren now travel to visit holy men, so Paul likewise in a 
similar disposition, went up to Peter. This was even much more humble 
on his part : for men now travel for their own improvement ; but this 
blessed apostle went to learn nothing, and to be set right on no point, but 
for this only motive, to see him, and honor him by his presence. He 
uses the term laroprjaai, to become acquainted with Peter ; not ids.lv, merely 
to see Peter. He went in order to become fully acquainted with him, as 
visitors seek to know thoroughly great and splendid cities." || 

St. Paul states, that to himself was committed the Gospel of the uncir- 
cumcision, as to Peter was that of the circumcision ;^f whence occasion has 
been taken to deny the general authority of Peter over Gentiles and Jews ; 
or, in other words, over all the members of the Church. The text, how- 
ever, cannot be understood of exclusive jurisdiction over either class as 
belonging to either apostle, since Paul, as occasion presented itself, in- 
structed Jews as well as Gentiles ; and Peter received the Gentiles, Cor- 
nelius and his family, into the Church. The apostle speaks manifestly of 
the chief objects of his zeal, since he was emphatically the teacher of the 
Gentiles, while Peter labored chiefly among the Jews. " St. Peter," says 
Bloomfield, "was chiefly, but not entirely, occupied by the Jews, and St. 
Paul chiefly, but not wholly, with the Gentiles."** The universality of 
the mission of all the apostles is unquestionable — it was not confined to 
certain classes of men, or bounded by territorial limits — they were sent 



* Gal. i. 18. f Horn, lxxxvii. in Joan. 

J 'Ioon/iOf, equally honorable. 

\ He insinuates that Paul may have been greater tban Peter in merit, talent, virtue, or 
other personal qualifications. || Chrysostom, in c. i. ep. ad. Gal. 

\ Gal. ii. 7. ** In locum. 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



77 



into the whole world, to preach the Gospel to every creature. St. Paul, 
being called in an extraordinary manner to the apostleship, participated in 
the plenitude of the original commission, which is not at all inconsistent 
with the supervision, presidency, and chief government of the whole 
Church, with which Peter was invested. 

Although the language of Peter himself, addressing his colleagues in 
the sacred ministry, is objected as excluding all idea of superior control, 
it is, nevertheless, in perfect harmony with his high prerogatives : " The 
ancients, therefore, that are among you, I beseech, who am myself also an 
ancient and a witness of Christ/'* The term -Kpsa^ozipotx:, presbyters, 
here rendered ancients, was then applied to bishops, whom St. Peter ad- 
dressed, declaring himself their fellow-bishop, go px pea fibre po~. Perfect 
equality cannot be meant by this expression, since, as an apostle, he was 
certainly superior to a local bishop. The character of bishop is undoubt- 
edly the same as that of an apostle ; but the jurisdiction of an apostle, 
being universal, far exceeds that of him who is charged with a special 
flock. The very fact of the general address of Peter to the bishops, whom 
he exhorts, and entreats to perform their pastoral duties in an humble, 
exemplary and disinterested manner, affords no slight presumption of his 
general superintendence and control. His language is certainly such as the 
chief pastor might appropriately employ : " Feed the flock of God which is 
among you : taking care not by constraint, but willingly according to God : 
neither for the sake of filthy lucre, but voluntarily : neither as domineering 
over the clergy, but being made a pattern of the flock from the heart. 
And when the Prince of Pastors shall appear, you shall receive a never- 
fading crown of glory."-)- Grotius has well remarked, that this epistle 
has an energy of language characteristic of the prince of the apostles. J 

Paul instructed Timothy and Titus, his disciples, whom, with his own 
hands, he had consecrated bishops : at Miletus he addressed the bishops 
whom he had called from Ephesus, and who were in like manner his special 
disciples. Either apostle might direct his admonitions to any bishop : but 
it seems not without a special design of the Holy Ghost, to mark the uni- 
versality of his official charge, that Peter, writing to the strangers — prose- 
lytes to Judaism first, and then to Christianity, dispersed through Pontus, 
Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia — gave solemn injunctions to all 
the bishops of those countries, on their sacred duties. 

The exercise of the most important functions of the primacy is, as we 
have seen, plainly proved from the sacred Scriptures. To provide pastors 
for the churches is the right and duty of the pastor of the whole flock, a 
right, however, which is to be exercised with a sacred regard for the in- 
terests of the universal Church. This was done by Peter, in supplying 



* 1 Pet. v. 1. f Ibidem, 2-4. 

J Habet haec epistola to cpotipov vehemens dicendi genus conveniens ingenio principis 
apostolorum. 



78 



EXERCISE OF THE PRIMACY BY ST. PETER. 



the place of Judas. To see that the pastors perform their duties to their 
respective flocks, appertains to the same office. To decide, or take a pro- 
minent part in deciding doctrinal controversies, is a duty of the chief pastor, 
which was manifestly performed by Peter, in the Council of Jerusalem. 
He truly exercised a primatial authority, which shows that the commission 
given to him imparted power to maintain unity and faith. 

It is not necessary to show that Peter actually exercised all and every 
one of the attributes of spiritual sovereignty, especially since we have no 
detailed history of the apostolic age; the Acts of the Apostles being con- 
fined to a few facts connected with the commencement of the Church, and 
an account of the conversion and chief labors of St. Paul. Since the 
promise of Christ, His charge to Peter at the last supper, and His com- 
mission after His resurrection, convey the idea of a viceroy, superintend- 
ent and pastor ; and the prominent part taken by Peter corresponds with 
this idea : we. are warranted in believing him to have possessed and exer- 
cised a true supremacy. I am not now anxious to demonstrate what are 
his essential rights : I ask only that his primacy, which is so clearly es- 
tablished, be admitted. I produce his commission with the seal of the 
Great King, and demand that it be respected. 



CHAPTER VII. 

per, pt*$ of Some. 

Haying proved from the sacred Scripture, on strict principles of exe~ 
gesis, and according to the general interpretation of the fathers of the 
first fire centuries, that Peter received from Christ an authoritative pri- 
macy, which must always continue in the Church, to be exercised by his 
successors, it becomes .necessary to show who succeeds to his privileges. 
The task is an easy one, as the voice of all antiquity proclaims the Bishop 
of Pvome to be the successor of Peter. Some bold men have, indeed, pushed 
skepticism so far as to deny that St. Peter ever was at Borne, as some un- 
believers have questioned whether Jesus Christ ever existed; but even 
Calvin, with every disposition to deny the fact, blushed to oppose the tes- 
timony of all the ancients •* while Cave strongly and fearlessly affirms it : 
" We intrepidly affirm with all antiquity, that Peter was at Eome, and 
for some time resided there." He adds : " All, both ancient and modern, 
will, I think, agree with me that Peter may be called Bishop of Borne, in 
a less strict sense,")" inasmuch as he laid the foundations of this Church, 
and rendered it illustrious by his martyrdom. "J Professor SchafF avows, 
that " it is the unanimous testimony of tradition that Peter suffered mar- 
tyrdom in Borne under Nero." Babylon, from which the first letter of 
St. Peter was written, is understood by learned interpreters generally, 
Protestant as well as Catholic, to mean Borne ; the Christians being ac- 
customed to designate it in this way, on account of its vices, which resem- 
bled the corruption of the ancient queen of the East. St. John portrayed 
the crimes and calamities of pagan Borne under the same name, in the 
mysterious descriptions of the Apocalypse. Those who assert that Peter 
visited Babylon on the Euphrates, which was then in ruins, are unsup- 
ported by history or tradition : and the critical reasons which they offer 
for interpreting the name literally, are far outweighed by the arguments 
in favor of its figurative acceptation. After a review of them, Professor 
Schaff says : " These difficulties constrain us to return to the earliest and, 
in ancient times, only prevalent interpretation of Babylon, by which it is 
taken to mean Borne. ' ; § 

* Inst. lib. iv. c. vi. 3 15. 

j This qualification is wholly unnecessary. 

j Sa3c. Apostol. S. Petrus. 

£ See Extract from S chaff's Church History, in Mercersburg Review, July, 1S51 : also 
Perrone Tract, de locis Theol. p. 1. \ ii. c. ii. n. 560. 

79 



80 



PETER, BISHOP OF ROME. 



For a matter of fact human testimony is entirely sufficient, whenever it 
is clothed "with those qualities which remove all just fear of deception. 
If it were otherwise, Christianity itself would vanish from our grasp ; for 
its certain transmission to us implies a number of facts independent of 
any testimony of Scripture ; and even the authenticity and integrity of 
the sacred books are dependent on human testimony, at least, for all who 
deny the authority of the Christian Church. 

Clement, Bishop of Home, a contemporary of the apostles, who is 
mentioned with honor by St. Paul, and who was ordained by Peter, ac- 
cording to the testimony of Tertullian, in a letter to the Corinthians, men- 
tions Peter and Paul as having suffered martyrdom at Rome under his 
eyes.* Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, when led to martyrdom, about the 
year 107, wrote to the Romans, begging of them to place no obstacle by 
their prayers to the fulfilment of his ardent desire to die for Christ : "I 
do not command you," he says, " as Peter and Paul : they were apostles : 
I am a condemned man."f This shows that the Romans had been in- 
structed by both apostles, and received their commands. Papias, Bishop 
of Hierapolis, a disciple of John the apostle, or of another John, a con- 
temporary of the Apostle, states that Mark related in his Gospel what he 
heard from Peter at Rome, and that Peter wrote his first epistle from 
Rome, calling it Babylon. J IreNvEUS declares that Peter and Paul 
preached the Gospel at Rome, and established the Church, which he calls 
" greatest and most ancient, known to all, founded and established by the 
most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul j" and adds the list of bishops from 
the apostles down to his own time.§ Dionysixjs of Corinth states, that 
both apostles, Peter and Paul, instructed the Corinthians, and afterward 
having passed into Italy, planted the faith among the Romans, and con- 
summated their course by martyrdom in their city.|| Cajus, a Roman 
priest, who lived at the close of the second and beginning of the third 
century, says : "I can show you the trophies of the apostles; for whether 
we go to the Vatican, or to the Ostian way, we shall meet with the tro- 
phies of the founders of this Church."^ Origen also testifies that Peter 
suffered martyrdom at Rome.** St. Cyprian says that Cornelius was 
chosen bishop " when the place of Fabian, that is, the place of Peter, 
and the rank of the priestly chair was vacant."")")" 

That Paul was not the original founder of the Church at Rome, is evi- 
dent from his epistle to the Romans, in which he states his earnest desire 
to see them, which up to that time was out of his power, and praises their 
faith as celebrated throughout the whole world. We must, then, conclude 
that Peter had already preached the faith there, since all antiquity recog- 



* Cor. n. 5, 6. j Ep ad Rom. 

J Apud Euseb. 1. ii. c. xv. Hist. Eecl. § L. iii. hser. c. iii. 

|| Apud Euseb. 1. ii. c. xxv. 

•[ L. adv. Proculum apud Euseb. Hist. Ecci. 1. ii. c. xr. 

** lb. 1. iii. c. 1. jf Ep. Iii. Antoniano. 



PETER, BISHOP OF ROME. 



81 



nises no other founders of the Roman Church but these two apostles : the 
conjecture of Dr. Jarvis, that proselytes who were at Jerusalem on the 
day of Pentecost, introduced and established the faith at Rome, being 
wholly unsupported. Eusebius, who compiled his ecclesiastical history 
from the most authentic documents of the early ages, states that Simon 
Magus, after he had been publicly rebuked by Peter, went to Rome, and 
that to counteract his efforts, " the all-bountiful and kind Providence which 
watches over all things, conducted thither the most courageous and the 
greatest of the apostles, Peter, who, on account of his virtue, was leader 
of all."* Theodoret, commenting on the passage of St. Paul, in which he 
expresses his desire to confirm the Romans in the faith, observes : " Be- 
cause the great Peter was the first to instruct them in the evangelical doc- 
trine, he necessarily said ' to confirm you f for he says : I do not mean to 
propose to you a new doctrine, but to confirm that which has been already 
delivered, and to water the trees that have been planted. "f In a word : 
" The universal tradition of the Church," by the acknowledgment of Mr. 
Palmer, " ascribes the foundation or first government of the Roman Church 
to the apostles Peter and Paul, who were the greatest of the apostles. "J 

It is, nevertheless, no easy matter to fix with certainty the precise date 
of the visit of the apostle to the capital of the empire, since ancient writers 
assign different periods, some probably referring to his second visit, while 
others speak of the former. With the few lights afforded us by Scripture, 
in regard to his movements and actions, and with the scanty historical ma- 
terials remaining, it would be unfair to require of us to adjust the chrono- 
logical order of events, so as to exclude all question. Learned antiquarians 
have exercised their skill in arranging them, and we are at liberty to adopt 
the results of their inquiries, or to remain in suspense as to the particular 
order of the facts, provided we admit that which is established by most 
unquestionable evidence, that the apostle Peter preached the faith at Rome 
before St. Paul addressed his letter to the faithful of that city.§ The letter 
to the Romans is generally assigned to the year of our Lord 58, the fourth 
year of the reign of Nero. Orosius, a writer of the fifth century, states 
that St. Peter came to Rome in the commencement of the reign of Clau- 
dius, who was the predecessor of Nero ; and St. Jerom, as well as Euse- 
bius, ascribes his visit to the second year of that reign, about the forty- 
fourth year of our Lord, so that we may consider this fact as attested by 
three judicious writers, who relied, no doubt, on ancient historical docu- 
ments. It probably occurred soon after the miraculous deliverance of the 
apostle from prison, when, rescued by the angel from the power of Herod, 
he went from Jerusalem "to another place." The See of Antioch had 
been previously founded by him, as the ancients assure us ; but his stay 



f L. ii. Hist. Eccl. c. xiv. f Com. in c. 1, ad Rom. 

J Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 472. 

g De Romano D. Petri itinere et episcopatu, P. P. Foggini. 

6 



82 



PETER, BISHOP OF ROME. 



there was short, although he may have retained the special charge of 
it for seven years, as many aver : its administration, however, being con- 
fided to Evodius, who is the first on the list of its bishops after the apostle. 
Twenty-five years are generally assigned to the Roman episcopate of St. 
Peter, which period intervened between the second year of Claudius, who 
reigned fourteen years, and the close of the reign of Nero, which is also 
believed to have lasted fourteen years.* The apostle nevertheless was not 
stationary during that whole period, since he must have returned to Judea, 
where he was present in the Council of Jerusalem, held in the nineteenth 
year after the resurrection of our Lord, about the fifty-first of the common 
era. His return may have been spontaneous, or it may have been occa- 
sioned by the edict published in the ninth year of Claudius,f by which all 
Jews w r ere commanded to quit the imperial city ; J since the natives of 
Judea, whether practising Jewish rites, or professing Christianity, were 
included under this general denomination. While Nero occupied the 
throne, Peter visited Roine, as Lactantius testifies ;§ which must be un- 
derstood of a second visit, since the authority of Jerom, Eusebius, and 
Orosius is conclusive as to the visit under Claudius. St. Leo alludes to 
both, extolling the fortitude of the apostle, who dreaded neither the power 
of Claudius, nor the cruelty of Nero.|| 

The concurrence of both apostles in the foundation of the Church of 
Rome does not at all interfere with the special prerogative of Peter. Both 
apostles labored successfully in establishing it ; both consecrated it by 
their martyrdom ; both are even styled its bishops by Epiphanius ; but, 
in the stricter sense, Peter was peculiarly its founder and its bishop. The 
Bishops of Rome are wont to unite the invocation of these glorious apos- 
tles, and to act as by their joint authority, because the apostolic power 
was possessed by each, and the pre-eminence of Peter was not affected by 
the joint labors and martyrdom of Paul : yet Peter was specially the 
Bishop of Rome. 

Cajus, already quoted, speaks of Victor, Bishop of Rome, as the thir- 
teenth in succession from Peter and a contemporary writer says that 
Peter appointed Linus to succeed him in the chair of this great city, " in 
which he himself had sat/' " The Church of Rome/' he adds, " organ- 
ized by Peter, flourished in piety/'** Hyginus is mentioned as the ninth 
occupant of the chair of Peter. Eusebius terms Peter the first Pontiff of 
the Christians :ff and speaks of Linus as "first Bishop of the Church of 
the Romans, after the leader Peter/' §§ Optatus mentions the establish- 



* Acts xii. 17. f Oros. Hist. 1. vii. e. vi. 

J Acts xviii. 2. $ L. de mortibus pers. c. ii. 

|| Serm. i. in natali ap. Petri et Pauli. ^[ Hist. Eccl. 1. v. c. xxviii. 

-** Contra Marcion carm. inter opera Tertull. 

f f Palmer, quoting Chronicle, an. 44. Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vii. ch. 1, 
p. 463. 

g§ In Chronico : Primus, post coryphjeum Petrum, Romanorum ecclesise episcopus. 



PETER, BISHOP OF ROME. 



83 



merit of the episcopal chair at Rome by Peter, as an unquestionable fact ; 
and states that Peter, the prince of the apostles, was the first to occupy it.* 
St. Chrysostom observes, that Linus was accounted the second Bishop of 
the Roman Church after Peter/'f St. Jerom says : " Clement was fourth 
Bishop of Rome after Peter."J Augustin begins the list from Peter, 
whom Linus succeeded, and continues it down to his own time.§ That 
Peter was strictly Bishop of Rome, is clearly established by these most 
ancient and respectable witnesses. That Paul was not united with him in 
the episcopal office, although he labored with him in his apostolic charac- 
ter, is plain from the marked distinction observed by all the ancients, who 
never give Paul alone the appellation of Roman Bishop, which they fre- 
quently give to Peter, and from the general and ancient tradition, that 
there cannot be two bishops of one Church • which was so strongly im- 
pressed on the minds of the Roman people, that when Constantius pro- 
posed that Liberius and Felix should jointly govern the Church, the faith- 
ful protested against the novelty, and cried out : One God, one Christ, 
one Bishop. 

St. Leo, addressing the Romans, on the anniversary of his own conse- 
cration, observes : " For the celebration of our solemnity, not only the 
apostolic, but likewise the episcopal dignity of the most blessed Peter 
concurs, who does not cease to preside over his own See, and obtains its 
unfailing union with the Eternal Priest. For that solidity, which he him- 
self being made a rock, received from Christ, he transmitted to his heirs 
likewise/' 1 1 

The alleged incompatibility of the apostleship with the episcopal office 
arises from a confusion of terms. If Peter were said to be Bishop of 
Rome in such a way as to confine his authority and vigilance to this local 
church, it would interfere with his apostolic office and primacy, since he 
was charged with the care of all the churches, and could not divest him- 
self of this general government : but no one considers him bishop in this 
sense. He retained the special charge of the Church of Rome, which he 
founded, without foregoing his general solicitude for the universal Church j 
and while he cherished the favored flock with peculiar care, he watched 
incessantly over all the sheep of Christ, wherever they were found, and 
urged the local pastors to the fulfilment of their duties, as appears from 
his admirable epistle. Most writers have identified James, Bishop of 
Jerusalem, with the apostle of that name, which shows that they did not 
deem the episcopal charge incompatible with his apostolic character, al- 
though he would thereby appear exclusively devoted to a single flock ; 
while the Roman bishopric of Peter does not imply any restriction of 
power or authority. Barrow virtually admits that James the apostle was 



* L. ii. c. iii. 

J Cat. Script. Eccl. de Clemente. 
[| Serin. V. in anniversario assumpt. 



f Horn. x. in ii. ad Titum. 
§ Ep. ad Generos. 



84 



PETER, BISHOP OF ROME. 



the same as the bishop,* and offers reasons why it was proper to give to 
him this special jurisdiction over the faithful of Jerusalem; which, how- 
ever, can have no weight, if the apostleship and episcopate cannot he united 
in the same person. 

The silence of St. Paul concerning St. Peter in his letter to the Romans 
is no argument against the episcopacy of Peter, much less against the fact 
of his having been at Rome. The letter was written most probably at a 
time when Peter was not in the city, to silence by his authority the dis- 
putants whom Paul labors to enlighten. Besides, a mere negative argu- 
ment cannot be admitted against positive testimony of contemporary wit- 
nesses, sustained by public facts and general tradition. 

Mr. Palmer says : " Hence we may see the reason for which the Bishops 
of Borne were styled successors of St. Peter by some of the fathers. 
They were bishops of the particular church which St. Peter had assisted 
in founding, and over which he had presided ; and they were also, as bi- 
shops of the principal church, the most eminent among the successors of 
the apostles ; even as St. Peter had possessed the pre-eminence among the 
apostles themselves."')' To express the whole truth unequivocally, he 
should have stated that, as bishops of that local church, and successors of 
St. Peter, their pre-eminence was one of jurisdiction and authority extend- 
ing throughout the whole world. 



* Treatise on the Supremacy. Suppos. iv. n. 11, 2. 

f A Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vii. ch. iii. g 1, p. 473. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



From the fact that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome at the time of his 
martyrdom, it follows that his successors in this See are heirs of his apos- 
tolic authority. The powers given to the apostles collectively are per- 
petual, but the bishops do not severally inherit their plenitude, since each 
receives charge of a special flock, as is intimated in the epistle of St. 
Peter,* with authority subordinate to that of the general ruler of the 
Church. Although all bishops are, in a qualified sense, successors of the 
apostles, no apostle but Peter has a successor in the strictest and fullest 
acceptation of the term, because he alone was invested with the office of 
supreme governor, which is essential to the order and existence of the 
Church in all ages. The primacy being of divine institution, as the words 
of our Lord plainly prove, it is by divine right vested in Peter, and in his 
successors : and the fact of his occupancy of the Roman See has deter- 
mined the succession to the Bishop of Rome. Hence we find all the an- 
cient writers speaking of the Roman Church as the Apostolic See, the 
head of all the churches. 

St. Ignatius, who, in the year 68, succeeded Evodius in the See of 
Antioch, on his way to martyrdom in 107, addressed a letter to the Church 
which presides in the country of the Romans : " Ignatius, also called 
Theophorus, to the Church that has obtained mercy through the magni- 
ficence of the most high Father, and of Jesus Christ, His only begotten 
Son; the Church, beloved and enlightened through His will, who wills 
all things that are according to the charity of Jesus Christ our God ; which 
PRESIDES in the place of the Roman region, being worthy of God, most 
comely, deservedly blessed, most celebrated, properly organized, most 
chaste, and PRESIDING in charity, having the law of Christ, bearing 
the name of the Father." This language clearly indicates the pre-emi- 
nence of the Roman Church. 

St. Iren^us, who passed from the East to Gaul, about the middle of the 
second century, and became Bishop of Lyons in 177, refuting the Gnos- 
tics, who boasted of some secret tradition more perfect than the public 
teaching of the Church, appeals against it to the public tradition of all 
churches throughout the world, and offers the Roman Church as a eompe- 



* 1 Pet. V. 2, TO tV VjXIV TTO'ljlVlOV. 

85 



86 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



tent and authoritative witness of this general tradition. " All," he says, 
" who wish to see the truth, may see in the entire Church the tradition of 
the apostles, manifested throughout the whole world : and we can enume- 
rate the bishops who have been ordained by the apostles, and their succes- 
sors down to our time, who taught or knew no such doctrine as they madly 
dream of. But since it would be very tedious to enumerate in this work 
the succession of all the churches, by pointing to the tradition of the 
greatest and most ancient church, known to all, founded and established 
at Rome by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, and to her faith 
announced to men, which comes down to us by the succession of bishops, 
we confound all those who in any improper manner gather together,* 
either through self-complacency, or vain-glory, or through blindness, or 
perverse disposition. For with this church, on account of her more pow- 
erful principality, it is necessary that every church, that is, the faithful, 
who are on all sides, f should agree,! in which the apostolic tradition has 
been always preserved by those who are on all sides."§ A better or more 
powerful 1 1 principality is ascribed to this church, since heavenly empire 
surpasses earthly dominion j and its influence in maintaining the integrity 
of Christian tradition, is shown by the necessity of harmony between all 
the local churches and this ruling church. The attempt to explain away 
this splendid testimony, by supposing the civil principality to be meant, 
is utterly futile : since this could be no reason why the churches and 
faithful should agree with the Roman Church. Hence it is pretended 
that agreement in doctrine is not meant, although it is manifest that the 
professed object of the writer is to prove the general tradition of the 
churches, of which he takes the tradition of the Roman Church as evi- 
dence, the succession of its bishops being well known, and its relations to 
the other churches implying the harmony of their faith. To suppose that 



* The Greek term cvWsyovai, " colligunt," is understood, of assembling. 

f Undique, as it were kvk\oj navTaxn. The central character of Rome, and the conver- 
gency of the local churches, as rays to a centre, or focus, is beautifully insinuated. 

J Ad banc enim ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem con- 
venire ecclesiam. The learned Calvinist, Saumaise, admits that this is the force of the 
phrase, which is Hellenistic. He remarks: Ad hanc convenire ecclesiam is a Grsecism for 
cum hac convenire ecclesia. "Necesse esse dicit omnem ecclesiam convenire ad Romanam, 
id est, ut Graece loquutus fuerat Irenaeus, ovuPaiveiv npog rr\v twv punaiCiv inKkriaiav, quod sig- 
nificat convenire et concordare in rebus fidei et doctrinae cum romana ecclesia." De pri- 
matu Papaa, c. v. Convenire as signifying motion, cannot be applied to a church. It 
could not be said even of the faithful, that it was necessary for them to go to Rome. 

§ Maxima? et antiquissimaa et omnibus cognitas, a gloriosissimis duobus apostolis Petro 
et Paulo Romae fundatae et constitutas ecclesiae earn quam habet ab apostolis traditionem, 
et annuntiatam hominibus fidem per successiones episcoporum pervenientem usque ad nos 
indicantes, confundimus omnes eos qui quoque modo, vel per sibi placentia, vel vanam 
gloriam, vel per caecitatem et malam sententiam, praaterquam oportet colligunt. Ad hanc 
enim ecclesiam, propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire eccle- 
siam, hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles : in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique, con- 
servata est ea quae est ab apostolis traditio. S. Iren. 1. iii. adv. haer. c. iii. 

|| The reading varies, probably because potiorem was put by contraction for potentiorem. 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



87 



the fortuitous visits to Rome of believers from various parts are referred 
to as affording evidence of general tradition, is manifestly inconsistent 
with the principles laid down by Irenasus, and indicated in the very pas- 
sage itself ; since it is of tradition descending through the succession of 
bishops that he speaks, and to their testimony and preaching, as divinely 
guaranteed by the gift, yapfo/ia, inherent in their office, he invariably as- 
cribes all certain knowledge of revealed truth. Besides, the frequency of 
the visits of believers to the capital of the empire is a gratuitous supposi- 
tion, void of probability, when we consider the humble condition of most 
of the faithful, and their great distance from Rome. Irenseus plainly 
speaks, not of travellers who happen to visit the city, but of churches 
which harmonize with this most glorious and apostolic church, on account 
of her more powerful principality. By the acknowledgment of Palmer : 
u Irenseus says, ' the necessity of resorting to the Roman Church arose 
from the principality or pre-eminence of that church/"* 

Dr. Nevin is more explicit : " It is not to be disguised," he says, " that 
the episcopate is viewed by him (Irenseus) as a general corporation, having 
its centre of unity in the Church of Rome. Against the novelty of here- 
tics, he appeals to the clear succession of the Catholic sees generally, from 
the time of the apostles ; but then sums up all, by singling out the Roman 
Church, founded by the most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, and having 
a certain principality for the Church at large, as furnishing in its line of 
bishops a sure tradition of the faith held by the universal body from the 
beginning."'!" 

We have already heard Tertullian contesting the power of forgiveness, 
which the Bishop of Rome exercised; but acknowledging that he was 
apostolic, and that the Roman Church was the church of Peter, and that 
Peter was the rock on which the Christian Church is built. We shall now 
hear him speak reverentially of the authority of the Roman Church, ac- 
knowledging her to be the depositary and guardian of the apostolic doc- 
trine, and its incorrupt professor, in harmony with the African churches, 
as well as with the other churches throughout the world. The fact of the 
establishment of this church by Peter and Paul, and the consequent au- 
thority of her teaching, are fully testified by him ; nor is his testimony 
weakened by his subsequent pleas in support of Montanism, since evidence 
given before a public tribunal would not be affected by partisan efforts of 
the witness against those who were benefited by it. 

In the admirable work on Prescriptions, in which Tertullian shows 
that the ancient doctrine alone can be true, because it comes down from 
the apostles, he thus invites the inquirer to pursue the investigation of 
truth, by listening to the teaching of the churches founded by the apos- 
tles. "Come, tiien," says he, "you who wish to exercise your curiosity 



* A Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vii. ch. v. p. 502. 

f Art. Early Christianity. Mereersburg Review, November, 1851. 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



to more advantage in the affair of salvation, go through the apostolic 
churches, in which the very chairs of the apostles continue aloft in their 
places, in which their very original letters are recited, sounding forth the 
voice, and representing the countenance of each one. Is Achaia near you ? 
you have Corinth ? If you are not far from Macedon, you have Philippi, 
you have Thessalonica. If you can go to Asia, you have Ephesus. If 
you are near Italy, you have Rome, whence we also derive our origin.* 
How happy is this church to which the apostles poured forth their whole 
doctrine with their blood ! where Peter by his martyrdom is made like to 
the Lord : where Paul is crowned with a death like that of John : where 
John the apostle, after he had been dipped in boiling oil without suffering 
injury, is banished to the island : let us see what she learned, what she 
taught, what she professed in her symbol in common with the African 
churches"! He passes rapidly over the other churches founded by the 
apostles, and which even to his day preserved the chairs on which they 
sat in the performance of their solemn functions, and their original letters. 
When he has reached the Roman Church, he pauses, exclaiming in rap- 
ture, how happy is she in possessing the abundant treasure of apostolic 
doctrine ! He appeals to her tradition, to her teaching, to her solemn pro- 
fession of faith, in which she was the guide of the African churches. 
Could we say more in her praise ? Need we claim for her higher prero- 
gatives? She is the church whose symbol is the great watchword of 
faith, and with which the churches throughout the world harmonize. 

In urging the character of antiquity as a mark of true doctrine, Tertul- 
lian says : " Since it is evident, that what is true is first, that what is first 
is from the beginning, that what is from the beginning is from the apos- 
tles, it also must be equally manifest, that what is held sacred in the 
apostolic churches must have been delivered by the apostles. Let us see 
with what milk the Corinthians were fed by Paul ; according to what 
standard the Galatians were reformed ; and what instructions were given 
to the Philippians, Thessalonians, and Ephesians ; what also the Romans 
proclaim in our ears, they to whom Peter and Paul left the Gospel sealed 
with their blood/' J The appeal to the other churches chiefly regards the 
apostolic letters directed to them, while the faith of Rome, as loudly pro- 
claimed within hearing, as it were, of Africa, is specially referred to ; for 

* Unde nobis quoque auctoritas prcesto est. Christianus Lupus shows that such is the 
force of auctoritas, as used by Tertullian. See Scholia. Also Diss. iL de Afr. Eccl. 
Prov. c. 1. 

f Si autem Italia? adjaces, hahes Roniani, unde nobis quoque authoritas prsesto est. 
Ista quam felix ecclesia, cui totam doctrinam apostoli cum sanguine suo profuderant : 
ubi Petrus passioni Dominicaa adcequatur: ubi Paulus Joannis exitu coronatur: ubi apos- 
tolus Joannes posteaquam in oleum igneum demersus, nihil passus est, in insulam rele- 
gatur: videnrnus quid didicerit, quid docuerit, cum Africanis quoque ecclesiis contes- 
serarit. De Praescr. DTser. c. xxxvi. 

% Tertullian, 1. iv. adv. Marcionem, p. 505. Quid etiam Romani de proximo sonent., 
quibus evangelium et Petrus et Paulus sanguine quoque suo signatum reliquerunt. 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



89 



by its tradition coming down unchanged, through the succession of bishops, 
from its glorious founders, all heretics and sectaries are confounded. 
Tertullian boldly challenged them to exhibit any thing bearing a like 
weight of authority : " Let them then give us the origin of their churches : 
let them unfold the series of their bishops, coming down from the begin- 
ning in succession, so that the first bishop was appointed and preceded by 
any one of the apostles, or of apostolic men, provided he persevered in 
communion with the apostles. For in this way the apostolic churches 
exhibit their origin, as the Church of Smyrna relates that Polycarp was 
placed there by John ; as the Church of Rome likewise relates that Cle- 
ment was ordained by Peter; and in like manner the other churches show 
those who were constituted bishops by the apostles, and made grafts of the 
apostolic seed. Let heretics feign any thing like this."* 

St. Cyprian, who, in so many passages, recognises Peter as the rock 
on which the Church is built, and the one apostle in whom unity was 
established, is loud in his eulogies of the Roman Church, which he styles 

THE PLACE OF PETER, THE PRINCIPAL CHURCH — THE ROOT AND MATRIX 

of the Catholic Church. In a letter to Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, 
he details the irregular proceedings of the schismatics, who had ordained 
Fortunatus bishop, and subsequently despatched Felicissimus to Rome, to 
deceive the Pope by false statements concerning his ordination : " A false 
bishop having been ordained for them by heretics, they venture to set sail, 
and carry letters from schismatical and profane men to the chair of 
Peter, and to the principal CnuRCH,f whence sacerdotal unity 
arose j nor do they reflect that they are Romans, whose faith is extolled 
by the apostle, to whom perfidy can have no access."J The strong lan- 
guage of this passage forced from Dr. Hopkins, the Protestant Episcopal 
Bishop of Vermont, this avowal : " Now here we have, certainly, a begin- 
ning of the doctrine of the Church of Rome, showing to us what we anti- 
cipated, when examining the evidence . of Irenaeus, namely, how early 
the Bishops of Rome endeavored to secure dominion and supremacy. The 
influence of their efforts, too, we find first showing itself in the neighbor- 
hood of Rome, for Carthage, where Cyprian was bishop, lay within a 
moderate distance from the imperial city. Let it be granted, then, that 
in the year 250, about a century and a half later than Polycarp, a century 
later than Irenasus, and fifty years later than Tertullian, the doctrine was 
partially admitted that Peter had been Bishop of Rome, and that the unity 



*" Tert. de prcescr. hcer. Edant ergo originem ecclesiarum suarum : evolvant ordinem 
episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille episcopus 
aliquem ex apostolis — habuerit auctorem et antecessorem. — Sicut Romanorum (ecclesia) 
Clementem a Petro ordinatum. — Confingant tale aliquid hseretici ! 

f Cathedram principalem. The English term principal does not fully express the force 
of the Latin. The edicts of the emperors are often styled jussiones principales. 

\ Ep. ad Cornel, lix. 



90 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



of the Church took its rise in the See or diocese of Peter/'* An un- 
biassed mind would have perceived in the words of Cyprian the echo of 
those of Irenseus, and recognised the powerful principality of the chair of 
Peter as the principle of unity and the safeguard of faith. 

Writing to Antonian, an African bishop, to remove some doubts con- 
cerning the legitimacy of the election of Cornelius, St. Cyprian praises his 
magnanimity in accepting the pontifical office, which was attended with 
the manifest danger of martyrdom, since Decius the heathen emperor 
dreaded more the presidency of the Roman Bishop over the Christian 
people, than the approach of a powerful enemy : " How great was his vir- 
tue in the discharge of the episcopal office ! how great his courage ! how 
strong his faith ! To sit fearlessly at Rome in the priestly chair, at a time 
when the priests of Grod were threatened with dire torments by a hostile 
tyrant, who would hear with less pain of a rival prince rising up against 
him, than of a priest of G-od being established at Rome.' ; "(" The dignity 
of the Roman Bishop must have been notorious, as well as eminent, to 
create such jealousy. 

It is objected, nevertheless, that Cyprian always treats Cornelius as a 
brother and colleague, and that Cornelius reciprocates, so as to appear on 
terms of perfect equality. This is easily accounted for by the fact, that 
all bishops are equal in their sacred character, the difference between them 
being merely of jurisdiction. Thus a Roman Council, in 378, says of 
Pope Damasus, that' " he is equal in office to the other bishops, and sur- 
passes them by the prerogative of the Apostolic See."| Even at this day 
the Pope is wont to address all bishops as " venerable brethren/' although 
at that early period Damasus called them his " most honorable children." 

We cannot satisfactorily account for the extraordinary authority recog- 
nised in the Roman clergy, during the vacancy of the See, except inas- 
much as they were regarded as the depositaries ad interim of the power 
ordinarily exercised by the Roman Bishop over the whole Church. St. 
Cyprian communicated to them the rules which, he deemed it advisable to 
adopt in regard to those who had fallen in persecution, with a view to ob- 
tain their approval : which they gave in terms complimentary to him, and 
sufficiently expressive of their own authority. Their letter in reply was 
despatched, as St. Cyprian assures us, not only to himself, but " throughout 
the whole world, and brought to the knowledge of all the churches and of 
all the brethren which shows that the authority of the Roman Church, 
which they provisionally exercised, extended to all portions of the uni- 
versal Church. 

The eminent dignity of the Roman Bishop, which, as we have seen from 



P Lectures on the Reformation, by John Henry Hopkins, <fcc. p. 127. There are some 
mistakes in the chronological computation. f Ep. Antonian, lv. 

X Ep. v. apud Constant, t. 1, col. 528. g Ep. xxx. Cleri Romani ad Cyprian. 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



91 



the testimony of Cyprian, was viewed with jealousy by Deems, was im- 
plicitly acknowledged soon afterward by Aurelian. Paul, Bishop of 
Samosata, had been deposed for heresy by the Council of Antioch, in the 
year 268, but under the protection of Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, he con- 
tinued to occupy the episcopal mansion. The Roman army, under the 
command of the emperor, having defeated the troops of the queen, the 
conqueror was implored to dispossess the heretical incumbent. Aurelian, 
feeling himself incompetent to decide a question which involved a point 
of Christian doctrine, decreed that " the right to the dwelling should be 
adjudged to him who should receive letters of communion from the Italian 
bishops of the Christian religion and from the Bishop of Rome."* This 
reference of a doctrinal dispute between Eastern bishops to the bishops of 
Italy, and especially to the Roman Bishop, proves that the emperor knew 
that he was acknowledged by Christians of the East, as well as of the 
West, to be the chief judge of doctrine. The mention of the other Italian 
bishops may have been made, because the matter seemed sufficiently im- 
portant to be examined, and decided in a meeting, and to take the form 
of a solemn judgment. Ammian Marcellinus, a pagan writer of the fol- 
lowing century, is also witness that " the bishops of the eternal city enjoy 
superior authority '/'f. which Barrow vainly attempts to explain of mere 
influence and reputation 

Atjgustin, speaking of Cecilian, the successor of Cyprian in the See of 
Carthage, pays a sublime tribute to the Roman Church, as possessing at 
all times, the apostolic power in all its fulness. Of the Bishop of Car- 
thage, he remarks, that " he might well disregard the combined multitude 
of his enemies, while he saw himself united, by letters of communion, 
with the Roman Church, in which the princedom of the Apostolic 
Chair always flourished, and with other countries, from which the 
Gospel came to Africa, where he was ready also to plead his cause, if his 
adversaries should endeavor to estrange these churches from him. "J There 
is no possibility of mistaking the force of this testimony. The dignity of 
the Roman Church is ascribed to its apostolic origin. To its authority 
and unquestionable integrity Augustin appeals, even in the supposition 
that the allegations of the Donatists against the African bishops and other 
bishops in communion with them were true : " If all throughout the world 
were such as you most wantonly assert, what has been done to you by the 
chair of the Roman Church, in which Peter sat, and in which 
Anastasius sits at this day ?"§ 

St. Jerom, who in his own cutting style so often lashed the vices of 
Rome, and treated with no indulgence the defects of the clergy, speaks 
with profound reverence of the Roman Church as the venerable See of the 
apostles, heiress of their faith, as well as of their relics. In his letter to 



* Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. vii. c. xxx. f L. xv. 

J Ep. xliii. olim clxii. ad Glorium et Eleusium. § R. contra ii. lit. Petiliani, c. 1. 



92 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



Marcella, he says : " There indeed is a holy church : there are the trophies 
of the apostles and martyrs : there is the true confession of Christ : there 
is that faith which was praised by the apostle : and Christianity is there 
making new advances daily over prostrate heathenism. "* Yet when cer- 
tain Roman usages were in question, such as the distinctions which deacons 
assumed, to the prejudice of the respect due to the priesthood and episco- 
pacy, Jerom refused to defer to these local customs, and strongly vindi- 
cated the honor of the higher orders. The pretensions of the deacons 
show the eminence of the Church, whose officers they were, since other- 
wise there would have been no pretext for their assumption, while his 
caustic strictures prove his independent character, which must give in- 
creased weight to the homage, which he elsewhere renders to the apostolic 
See. " The Church," he says, " of the Roman city is not to be thought 
something different from the Church of the whole world. Gaul, and Bri- 
tain, and Africa, and Persia, and the East, and India, and all the bar- 
barous nations adore one Christ — observe one rule of truth. If authority 
is sought for, the world is greater than one city. Wherever a bishop is, 
whether at Rome, or at Eugubium,f or at Constantinople, or Rhegium, 
or Alexandria, or Tanae, he has the same dignity, the same priesthood. 
Neither the power of wealth nor the lowliness of poverty makes a bishop 
more or Jess exalted :J but all are successors of the apostles. But you 
say, how is it that at Rome the priest is ordained on the testimony of the 
deacon ? Why do you offer as an objection the custom of one city ? Why 
do you allege, as laws of the Church, the insignificant number, from which 
haughtiness has sprung ? Every thing that is rare is sought after. Their 
small number makes deacons respected ; the multitude of priests brings 
them into contempt. However, even in the Church of Rome, priests sit 
while the deacons remain standing." § Jerom asserted the equality of the 
episcopacy, evidently with a view to embrace even the priests, in defence 
of whose privileges he was writing. Will any one, in the face of all the 
monuments of antiquity, maintain, that the Bishops of Rome and Eugu- 
bium, of Alexandria and of Tanae, were distinguished by no difference of 
jurisdiction? The episcopal character is, indeed, alike in all; the Bishop 
of Eugubium is, in this respect, equal to the Bishop of Rome ; but the 
governing power, or jurisdiction, widely differs, for to the one the care of 
a small portion of the flock of Christ — to the other the charge of all the 
sheep and lambs is committed. 

Jerom cannot be supposed to depreciate the authority of the Roman 
Church, merely because he condemns the practice of a few deacons, who 
took occasion from the eminence of that Church in which they enjoyed 
special distinction, to treat with less reverence their superiors in the sacred 



* Ep. ad Marcell. f Gubbio, a small town in the Roman States. 

X The negation is wanting in some copies. £ Hieronym. Evagrio. 



* 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



94 



ministry. Such customs as are peculiar to the local Church of Rome, 
need not be adopted by the other churches in her communion : and the 
abuses of individuals among the clergy of that Church, may be condemned, 
even by those, who, like Jerom, cry aloud that they cling to the chair of 
Peter — who receive her faith and tradition with reverence, and who cherish 
her communion, because they " know that it is the rock on which the 
Church was built/' 

All the bishops of the province of Aries concurred in a letter to St. Leo, 
in which, imploring the exercise of his authority in support of the privileges 
of the See of Aries, they distinctly recognised its apostolic source : " The 
Holy Roman Church," say they, u through the most blessed Peter, prince 
of the apostles, has the principality over all the churches of the world."* 
Leo himself, addressing the clergy and faithful of Rome, dwelt on the 
favor bestowed on them by the apostles : " They have raised you to such 
a pitch of glory, that, being made a holy nation, a chosen people, a priestly 
and royal city, the head of the world, through the sacred See of blessed 
Peter, you preside over a vaster region by the influence of divine religion, 
than before by earthly dominion. "-j- 

Barrow asserts, that the imperial dignity of the city was " the sole 
ground upon which the greatest of all ancient synods, that of Chalcedon, 
did affirm the papal eminency to be founded; for 'to the throne/ say 
they, ' of ancient Rome, because that was the royal city, the fathers rea- 
sonably deferred the privileges.' "J This assertion, however, is refuted by 
the very words of the council addressed to Leo, in regard to Dioscorus, 
patriarch of Alexandria : " He has extended his frenzy even against your 
apostolic Holiness, to whom the care of the vineyard was intrusted by the 
Saviour."§ When the Council speaks of prerogatives as bestowed by the 
fathers in consideration of the majesty of the city, they cannot be under- 
stood of the primacy itself, since this is no other than the care of the 
Lord's vineyard, which they expressly acknowledge to have been commit- 
ted by our Saviour Himself to Leo, in the person of Peter. The attempt 
of Palmer to explain away this solemn recognition of the divine origin of 
the primacy, as if it meant "by His providence in permitting that bishop 
to occupy so eminent a position in the Church," || is a perversion so un- 
candid as not to merit refutation. The privileges bestowed on the Roman 
See were only in recognition of its rights, by enactments tending to facili- 
tate their exercise, especially by the canons of Sardica, which acknowledged 
the right of the Roman Bishop to receive appeals, and the propriety of 
reporting to him from all parts the state of religion, as to one divinely 
charged with the solicitude of all the churches: "This seems excellent 
and most suitable, that the priests of the Lord, from the respective pro- 



* Ep. lxv. inter Leonis ep. f Serm. Ixxxii. in Natali Apost. 

± Supp. v. n. ix. § T. ii. p. 655, coll. Hard. 

j| Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. p. vii. ch. iii. p. 476. 



94 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



vinces, report to the head, that is, to the See of the apostle Peter."* The 
imperial majesty of Rome was, indeed, the occasion of its being chosen by 
the apostle himself for the seat of his authority : if we may not suppose 
him to have been specially directed by Christ our Lord in a point so im- 
portant. The chief city of a heathen empire, co-extensive with the civil- 
ized world, was peculiarly adapted to become the centre of a religion, 
which was to spread throughout all nations, making captives to Christ the 
lords of the earth, as well as their subjects, and extending its mild in- 
fluence beyond the utmost bounds of civilization. The divinity of Christ 
was manifested in a manner the most striking, when the fisherman of 
Galilee planted the cross in the city of the Caesars, and established his 
chair near the imperial throne, in the confidence that his empire would far 
surpass theirs in extent, and that it would endure and flourish for ages 
after theirs had been broken into fragments by the barbarian. Most pro- 
bably the traveller would now seek iu vain for the ruins of Rome, as for 
those of the eastern Babylon,f had it not been thus selected for the seat 
of a peaceful empire, far more glorious than that, which it once acquired 
by the irresistible valor of its legions. We may safely add, that it is de- 
stined to continue the fountain of civilization, art, science, and religion : 

"Rome dont le destin dans la paix, dans la guerre, 
Est d'etre en tous les terns maitresse de la terre."j 

Rome, Heaven awards the world for thy domain; 
As once in war, in peace is now thy reign. 

Some are willing to ascribe the origin of pontifical supremacy to the 
concessions of Christian emperors, who were pleased that the Bishop of 
ancient Rome should preside over his colleagues : but it is manifest, that 
it is to be traced to no such source. The seat of empire having been re- 
moved by Constantine to the city which bears his name, the imperial in- 
fluence was naturally enlisted in favor of its bishop, who, from being a 
suffragan of the See of Heraclea, in Thrace, soon sought to become the 
second dignitary of the Church, to the prejudice of the rights of the Bi- 
shops of Alexandria and Antioch, and of other prelates. In 421, Theo- 
dosius the younger, overstepping the limits of the civil power, issued an 
edict, giving him cognizance of ecclesiastical causes throughout all the 
provinces of Illyricum, which belonged to the Western patriarchate. Ho- 
norius, Emperor of the West, remonstrated with his Eastern colleague on 
this innovation, as prejudicial to the rights of the "Holy Apostolic See." 
"Doubtless," he says, "we ought specially to venerate the Church of that 
city, from which we have received the Roman empire, and the priesthood 
derives its origin." He begs him to " command the ancient order to be 



* Ep. Rom. Pont. Coustant. t. 1, p. 395. 

f Mr. Layard has heen partially successful. See " Discoveries in the Kuins of ISaniveh 
and Babylon ; by Austin H. Layard." J Voltaire, La Henriade, ch. iv. 



ROMAN CHURCH. 95 

observed, lest the "Roman Church, under the empire of Christian princes, 
lose what it retained under other emperors."* Theodosius, yielding to 
this remonstrance, revoked his former decree. 

The occupants of the See of Constantinople continued, nevertheless, to 
aspire after titles and power, with the marked favor of the Eastern em- 
perors, until at length Pope Boniface III., about the year 606, obtained 
from Phocas the legal recognition of his title, which some moderns mis- 
take for an imperial concession. Long before this period, namely, in 455, 
the Emperor Yalentinian issued a decree, in which he acknowledged the 
primacy of the Eoman Bishop to flow from the princely eminence of St. 
Peter : " The merit of blessed Peter, who is the prixce oe the 
priestly order, and the dignity of the Koman city, the authority also 
of the holy synod, strengthened the primacy of the Apostolic See."f 
The mention of the dignity of the city cannot detract from the force of 
the first reason, which of itself is sufficient. The principality of Peter is 
the real and only source of the dignity of the Koman Church ; but the 
remembrance of the former civil importance of the city might be a motive 
in the mind of a Christian emperor, for viewing with complacency the 
apostolic prerogatives, with which it was enriched. The authority of the 
holy synod of Sardica strengthened them, inasmuch as the recognition of 
them was calculated to increase the reverence of the faithful for this guar- 
dian power, established by Christ Himself, who constituted Peter " prince 
of the priestly order." 

Even Palmer says : " It would be a mistake to contend, that the pre- 
eminence of the Roman Church was derived altogether from the decrees 
of emperors, or from the canons of Councils, though it was much increased 
by such causes. It was founded on the possession of attributes, which 
collectively belonged to no other Church whatever."! He might have 
simply said, that it was founded on the fact, that it was the See of Peter, 
which, a little before, he himself had acknowledged : n The Boman Church 
was particularly honored as having been presided over by Peter, the first 
of the apostles, and was, therefore, by many of the fathers, called the See 
ofPeter."§ 

With . more ingenuousness, Mr. Allies, while still an Anglican, avowed 
that " the precedency or prerogative of Borne, to whatever extent it reach- 
ed, was certainly not either claimed or granted merely because Borne was 
the imperial city. It was explicitly claimed by the Bishop of Borne, and 
as freely conceded by others to him, as, in a special sense, successor to St. 
Peter. From the very first, the Boman Pontiff seems possessed himself, 
as from a living tradition, which had thoroughly penetrated the local Bo- 
man Church, with a consciousness of some peculiar influence he was to 

* Ep. ix. x. xi. apud Coustant. t. 1, col. 1029, 1030. 

f Nov. xxiv. in fine cocl. Theocl. Vide Hallam, Middle Age?, c. vii. p. 270. 
J A Treatise on the Church of Christ, vol. ii. part vii. ch. iii. p. 473. 
2 Ibidem, p. 472. 



90 



ROMAN CHURCH. 



exercise over the whole Church. This consciousness does not show itself 
here and there in the line of Roman Pontiffs, but one and all seem to have 
imbibed it from the atmosphere, which they breathed. That they were 
the successors of St. Peter, who himself sat and ruled, and spoke in their 
person, was as strongly felt, and as consistently declared, by those Pontiffs, 
who preceded the time of Constantine, as by those who followed. The 
feeling of their brother bishops, concerning them, may have been less de- 
finite, as was natural ; but even those, who most opposed any arbitrary 
stretch of authority on their part, as St. Cyprian, fully admitted that they 
sat in the See of St. Peter, and ordinarily treated them with the greatest 
deference. This is written so very legibly upon the records of antiquity, 
that I am persuaded any one, who is even very slightly acquainted with 
them, cannot with sincerity dispute it."* 



* The Church of England Cleared, &c. 



CHAPTER IX. 



&mixt rf Sfaitj. 

1. — COMMUNION WITH THE SEE OP ROME. 

The Bishop of Rome, being successor of St. Peter in the pastoral office, 
all the sheep of Christ are under his charge. All the bishops, with their 
respective flocks, constitute the one flock of Christ, under the one pastor, 
who is consequently the centre of general unity. All must communicate 
with him, since the members must be connected with the head : through 
whom they communicate with all their colleagues, even should they have 
no direct personal intercourse. The Church of Christ is essentially one — 
one body, one sheepfold — a well-constructed house — a united kingdom. 
It is plain, from all ancient documents, that the Bishop of Rome was re- 
garded by all antiquity as a necessary bond of the universal Church, and 
that all bishops who valued Catholic unity, sought it in his communion. 
It is easy to perceive in Irenaeus the necessity of this union and harmony 
with the Roman Church.* The members must harmonize and be united 
with the head; the provinces of this spiritual empire must be subject to 
the ruling power; the local churches and faithful must agree with the 
principal and ruling church. Thus had apostolic tradition been preserved 
in its integrity in the Church of Rome down to the time of Irenaeus. The 
succession of bishops from Peter and Paul, her founders, had transmitted 
their teaching • and the whole body of believers, throughout the world, 
bore witness to it by the assent, which they gave to the doctrine of the 
Roman Church, whose communion they cherished as an essential principle 
of church organization. 

St. Cyprian is an illustrious witness to the necessity of communion 
with the See of St. Peter, which is so strongly asserted by him, that Hal- 
lam deems his language more definite than that of Irenaeus : "Irenaeus," 
he remarks, " rather vaguely, and Cyprian more positively admit, or rather 
assert the primacy of the Church of Rome, which the latter seems to have 
regarded as a kind of centre of Catholic unity."f 

Mosheim avows, that the principles laid down by these fathers lead 
naturally to the admission of a central authority, such as is ascribed to the 
Bishop of Rome, and alleges that they were too simple and short-sighted 



* See p. 85. f Middle Ages, c. vii. p. 270, Americ. ed. 

7 97 



* 



98 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



to understand the consequences ! "Cyprian and the rest cannot have known 
the corollaries which follow from their precepts about the Church. For 
no one is so dull as not to see that between a certain unity of the universal 
Church, terminating in the Roman Pontiff, and such a community as we 
have described out of Irenaeus and Cyprian, there is scarcely so much room 
as between hall and chamber, or between hand and fingers."* 

The letter of St. Cyprian to Antonian, whom the representations of 
Novatian had caused to hesitate in recognising Cornelius as Bishop of 
Rome, begins thus : " I received your first letter, most beloved brother, 
which firmly maintains the harmony of the priestly college, and the com- 
munion of the Catholic Church, inasmuch as you intimate, that you hold 
no communion with Xovatian, but that, following our counsel, you are in 
harmony with Cornelius, our fellow-bishop. You also wrote, that I should 
forward a copy of the same letter to Cornelius, our colleague, that he 
might lay aside all anxiety, knowing that YOU COMMUNICATE with him, 
that is, with the Catholic CHURCH."f This will enable us to un- 
derstand the full force of some other passages in the sequel. The Bishop 
of Rome, at that early day, was the centre and bond of Catholic commu- 
nion : through him the bishops of every part of Christendom communicated 
with each other, and thereby formed that episcopal college, of which Cy- 
prian so often speaks — as one in its character, tendency, and spirit. 

Antonian had requested to be informed what heresy Xovatian had in- 
troduced. Cyprian replied, it was a matter of no consequence, as long as 
he was separated from the Church by his opposition to her lawful bishop : 
" As to what regards Xovatian, concerning whom you have requested me 
to inform you what heresy he has introduced, know, in the first place, that 
we should not be curious to know what he teaches, since he teaches with- 
out. Whoever he is, and whatever qualifications he possesses, 
he is not a Christian who is not in the Church of Christ." Xo 
one can insist on the necessity of communion with the Apostolic See, in 
terms stronger than these. Immediately after the words just quoted, Cy- 
prian continues : " Though he boast of his philosophy, or proclaim his elo- 
quence in haughty words, he who does not maintain either fraternal 
charity, or ecclesiastical unity, has lost what he had been before. Unless, 
indeed, you regard as a bishop, an adulterer and stranger, who ambi- 
tiously endeavors to be made bishop by deserters, after a bishop has been 
ordained in the Church by sixteen bishops ; and, while there is one Church 
divided by Christ into many members, throughout the whole world, and 
one episcopacy spread abroad in the concordant multitude of bishops, in 
violation of the unity of the Catholic Church, which is connected and joined 
together everywhere, he endeavors to make a human church, and sends his 
apostles through manycities, to lay the foundations of his new institution ; 
and while, long since, throughout all the provinces, and in every city, 



* Dissertatio de Gallorum appell. £ 13. f Ep. ad Antonian. 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



99 



bishops have been ordained — advanced in age, sound in faith, tried in 
times of oppression, proscribed in persecution, he dares create mock bishops 
in their stead. " It would be absurd to argue that there is no superior au- 
thority in the Bishop of Rome above his colleagues, because the episcopate 
is one y for surely the context shows, that it is not directed to establish the 
equality of all bishops, but their union for one great purpose — the govern- 
ment of the Church • whence Cyprian concludes, that the refractory in- 
truder, Novatian, by his opposition to Cornelius, was cut off from the 
communion of all bishops, and of the Church. The very efforts of Nova- 
tian to secure the support and gain the communion of the African bishops, 
and to lay the foundations of his new institution, by means of his emis- 
saries, indicate that the station, which he claimed, was that of a bishop 
having general authority throughout the Church, on which account he was 
considered by Cyprian as laboring to establish a new institution, " a human 
Church," in opposition to the Divine institution of Christ. 

The language of this illustrious prelate is stronger than the mere usurpa- 
tion of an ordinary bishopric, contrary to the rights of the legitimate pas- 
tor, would warrant. Such an act, however unjustifiable and criminal, is 
not in itself an attempt to make a new Church. When Fortunatus had 
been created bishop, by some schismatics, in opposition to Cyprian him- 
self, this prelate, while strongly reprobating the act, did not look upon it 
as one involving serious consequences to the universal Church, so that he 
neglected to inform Cornelius of it, until, on the application of the schis- 
matics for recognition, the Pope wrote to inquire into the facts, and the 
causes of his silence.* He complains, that the communications from Poly- 
carp, Bishop of the colony of Adrumetum,f which had been, in the first in- 
stance, addressed to him by name, had subsequently been directed to the 
priests and deacons of the Roman Church, which change he traced to a 
visit which Cyprian and Liberalis had made to the colony. This shows the 
frequency of the communications with the Roman Church from distant 
parts, and the right which the Bishop of Rome claimed, that they should 
be addressed to himself personally. Cyprian, whose mind from the be- 
ginning had been made up in favor of Cornelius, explains in his reply, the 
motives of the change, which was the result of a resolution taken by seve- 
ral bishops, in an assembly held on the subject, to avoid direct communi- 
cation with either of the claimants, until the return of the ambassadors, 
whom they had despatched to ascertain the facts. In the mean time they 
had been careful to cling to the Roman Church : " for/' says he, " giving 
an account (of this reserve) we know that we exhorted all who sailed 
(hence) to acknowledge and hold fast to the ROOT AND matrix OF THE 
Catholic Church." On the return of the ambassadors, all doubt about 



* Ep. lix. Cyprianus Cornelio. 

f Afterward called Heraclea, and recently Herkla, on the eastern coast of Tunis. 



100 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



the legitimacy of the election of Cornelius being removed, it was deter- 
mined;, as Cyprian assures him, that letters should be written and ambas- 
sadors sent to him by all the bishops : " that all our colleagues should 
strongly approve of you, and hold fast your communion, that is, both the 
unity and charity of the Catholic Church/'* The dignity of the Roman 
Church as the See of Peter, and the necessity of communion with her, could 
not be more touchingly expressed. 

In his admirable treatise on the unity of the Church, St. Cyprian main- 
tains that martyrdom avails nothing to him who is not in unity. Yet 
unity is a phantom, unless the central and connecting authority of the 
Bishop of Rome be admitted. The union of local churches in senti- 
ment and faith cannot be left to the result of mere chance. There 
may be, at least, as many creeds as there are bishops, if there be not 
a chief bishop in whom his colleagues recognise their leader and organ, 
to declare with authority, in the name of all, the common faith. By 
this means the general tradition can be collected, preserved, and trans- 
mitted. The bishops gathering around him may attest the faith of 
their respective churches, compare it with the unfailing tradition of 
Peter, and uniting with him in judgment, concur to proscribe all the 
novel inventions of human pride. Union of charity between churches 
discordant in faith, is a fond imagination of those, who would cover the 
shame of disunion, by affecting to cherish, what, at best, is but sympathy 
for the errors of their fellow-men. The Church is the pillar and the 
ground of the truth, which must be admitted by her members in all its 
fulness. She cannot be one without a common principle of government. 
There can be no permanent order without a controlling power. As in 
each diocese, the bishop is the ruler, in whom the clergy and faithful unite 
to form a local church, so all the churches must have a universal bishop, 
presiding over all, and directing and governing all. As there is one God, 
one Christ, one Church, one faith, so, according to Cyprian, there is one 
chair founded by the voice of the Lord on Peter. From him unity be- 
gan : in his chair the principle of unity is lodged : and the same necessity 
which obliges us to recognise one Church, leads us to acknowledge one 
Pastor, one Priest, one Judge in the place of Christ. The plenitude and 
independence of authority in the several bishops are totally inconsistent 
with unity. " Would there not have been," asks Mr. Allies, " not only 
imminent danger, but almost certainty, that a power, unlimited in its na- 
ture, committed to so large a body of men, who might become indefinitely 
more numerous, yet were each independent centres of authority, instead 
of tending to unity, would produce diversity ?"f 

St. Cyprian holds the episcopate to be one, as the Church is one : " Does 
he who opposes and resists the Church — who forsakes the chair of Peter, 



* Ep. xlyiii. 



t The Church of England Cleared, etc. p. 17. 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



101 



on loJiom the Church was founded* — flatter himself that he is in the 
Church; while the blessed Paul, the apostle, teaches this, and shows the 
mystery of unity, saying : ' One body, and one spirit, one hope of your 
calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God V This unity ought to 
be firmly held and maintained, especially by us bishops, who preside in 
the Church, that we may show that the episcopate itself is one, and indi- 
visible. Let no one deceive the brotherhood by falsehood — let no one 
corrupt the truth of faith by perfidious prevarication. The episcopate is 
one, the parts of which hold severally from the whole ; the Church is 
one, which is extended more widely by the increase of her fecundity."'! 
The scope of Cyprian is not to prove that one bishop is equal to another, 
or that each bishop possesses the entire episcopal power in its plenitude ; 
but that the Church is one, and the episcopate one likewise, each bishop 
exercising his authority for the same general interest, and in inviolable 
connection with his brethren. The phrase : cujus pars a singulis in soli- 
dum tenetur,\ marks the end and manner of the exercise of episcopal 
power — the unity and connection in which alone it can be enjoyed, 
since all bishops, according to Cyprian, are a collegium,^ or corporate 
body, the powers of which are communicated to the individual mem- 
bers with dependence on the general body, especially on the head. 
Dr. Nevin remarks, " it is enough for us to know that the unity of the 
Church was taken to stand in the solidarity of the episcopate, and that the 
proper radix and matrix of the whole system, as Cyprian has it, was felt 
to be the cathedra Petri, kept up by regular succession in the Church of 
Rome." || The book on the unity of the Church, which was addressed to 
those confessors of the faith, who had tarnished their glory by supporting 
the schism of Novatian, was directed to prove, that those, who adhered to 
a rival of the lawful Bishop of Rome, forfeited all the privileges of the 
Church, which are only enjoyed in unity, all bishops being necessarily 
united in communion. As there can be only one bishop in each Church, 
whoever sets up or supports a rival prelate, by this schismatical act de- 
prives himself of the communion of the whole Church, which can only be 
enjoyed through the lawful bishop. This was especially true of the Bi- 
shop of Rome, the head of all bishops, although the principle may be ap- 
plied to any diocesan in communion with the chief bishop and the univer- 
sal Church. 

The great Archbishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, relates in praise of his 
brother Satirus, that on reaching shore after shipwreck, he was careful to 



* The words in italics are omitted in the edition of Erasmus. I believe them to be ge- 
nuine, for the reasons elsewhere given ; but I have no need of laying stress on them, 
f De unit. Eccl. 

J I bave borrowed the translation of Dr. Nevin. For a full exposition of this text, and 
of the relations of the Pope to the college of bishops, I refer to a work of great value : 
"The Unity of the Episcopate Considered, by Edward Healy Thompson, M.A." The 
author is one of many English converts. 

§ Ep. lii. || A Word of Explanation, M. E. March, 1852. 



102 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



inquire, whether the bishop of the place u agreed in faith with the Catholic 
bishops, that is, with the Eoman Church. "* Thus communion with Rome 
was regarded as an evidence of orthodoxy and Catholicity. 

St. Optatus, arguing against Parmenian the Donatist, insists on the 
notoriety of the fact, that Peter established the episcopal chair at Rome, 
whence he infers the necessity of communion with the Bishop of that See. 
u You cannot affect ignorance of the fact, that the episcopal chair was first 
established by Peter in the city of Rome, in which Peter sat, the head of all 
the apostles, for which reason he was called Cephas :f in which one chair 
unity should be maintained by all ; that the apostles should not each set 
up a chair for himself, but that he should be at once a schismatic and a 
sinner, who should erect any other against that one chair." He gives the 
succession of pontiffs from St. Peter to Siricius, " who," says he, " is at 
this day our colleague, with whom the whole world as well as ourselves, 
agrees in one society and communion by the intercourse of the usual let- 
ters."! The chair of Peter is thus plainly recognised as the necessary 
bond of Catholic communion. 

Mr. Palmer feebly attempts to elude the force of this remarkable pas- 
sage, by a qualified concession: "It is not denied that St. Optatus, in 
arguing against the Donatists as to the ' cathedra/ which they admitted to 
be one of the gifts of the Church, refers to the chair of Peter at Rome, as 
constituting the centre of unity in the Catholic Church. It was so in fact, 
at that time, and had very long been so."§ Truly, very long, even from 
the time that Peter founded that See : and so necessary was this centre of 
unity in the mind of Optatus, that whoever erects a rival see is a schis- 
matic and prevaricator. 

St. Augustin fully harmonizes with Optatus, in acknowledging the neces- 
sity of communion with the Roman See ; and calls on the Donatists to 
embrace it, if they wish to be ingrafted in the vine.|| St. Jerom identifies 
the Roman with the Catholic faith, demanding : " What faith does Rufinus 
call his own ? Is it that which is held by the Roman Church, or that 
which is found in the writings of Origen ? If he replies : It is the Ro- 
man : then we are Catholics. In the conflicting claims to the see of 
Antioch, of three prelates, of which we will speak more fully hereafter, he 
manifested the greatest anxiety to discover which of them enjoyed the 
communion of the Pontiff, that with him only he might communicate. 

"When the intention of St. Fulgentius to visit the monasteries of Egypt, 
with a view to attain to the perfection of monastic discipline, became known 
to Eulalius, Bishop of Syracuse, he effectually dissuaded him from putting 

* De obitu fratris. 

f Mock. Some pretend that Optatus confounded the Syriac term with the Greek term 
KEtpaXr), which signifies head: but this is by no means certain, since he might well say that 
the apostle was called a rock, because he was head of all the apostles. 

J De Schismat. Donat. 1. ii. 

§ A Treatise on the Church, part vii. ch. v. p. 503. 

|| Ps. contra partem Donati. ^ L. i. in Rutin, n. 4. 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



103 



it in execution, by remarking that they were separated from the com- 
munion of Peter, and consequently out of the way of salvation, whatever 
austerities they might practise: "You are right/' said the bishop, "in 
aspiring to perfection ; but you know that without faith it is impossible 
to please God. The countries which you desire to visit are separated by 
dire schism from the communion of Blessed Peter."* 

All the ancient symbols and fathers speak of unity as an essential attri- 
bute, of the Church, as Mr. Manning has fully shown.-)* This unity was 
not realized unless by means of communion with the Roman See, as Dr. 
Nevin candidly avows : " To be joined in communion with the See of 
Rome was in the view of this period to be in the bosom of the true church; 
to be out of that communion was to be in schism. It was not enough to 
be in union with any other bishop or body of bishops • the sacrament of 
unity was held to be of force only, as having regard to the church in its 
universal character ; and this involved necessarily the idea of an universal 
centre, which by general consent was to be found in Rome only, and no 
where else ."J 

The sophism of some moderns, who, from the popular use of the terms 
" Roman Catholic/' infer that our claims involve contradiction, is easily 
refuted. The term Roman" was applied to the Catholic faith by Pela- 
gius the heretic, who designated in this way the faith of St. Ambrose, § 
aud by Theodosius the younger, || as also by St. Jerom. The union of 
both appellations is popular, rather than ecclesiastical, for which reason it 
was objected to in the Congress of Vienna, by Cardinal Consalvi, who pre- 
ferred that the Church should be styled Roman and Catholic. The popu- 
lar usage, however, admits of an easy explanation, since the mention of 
the seat of power does not necessarily limit the extent of empire • and the 
centre can be pointed to without prejudice to the vastness of the circum- 
ference. The Church is Roman, because her visible head is Bishop of 
Rome : she is Catholic, because her spiritual dominion extends through- 
out all nations, even to the extremities of the world.f 

I 2.— INTERRUPTIONS OF COMMUNION. 

Although special facts should never be allowed to militate against prin- 
ciples which are certain, it may be useful to consider the particular cases 
in which prelates or churches are alleged to have been out of the commu- 
nion of the Roman See, without loss of church-membership or privileges. 

* B. Fulgentii vita c. xiii. 

f The Unity of the Church, by Henry Edward Manning, M. A., Archdeacon of Chiches- 
ter, ch. i. ii. 

J Early Christianity. Mercersburg Review, September, 1851. 
g Apud Aug. 1. de Gratia Christi, c. xlvi. 
|| In Cone. Eph. 

\ Anglo-Catholic is a modern phrase, involving a real contradiction, since it unites an 
insular title, implying independent and separate existence, with a claim to universality. 



104 



CEXTRE OF UNITY. 



St. Meletius, Patriarch of Antioch, is given as an instance : but it can 
never be shown that he was deprived of ecclesiastical communion, although 
for a time he did not enjoy official intercourse with the Pontiff. The 
Arians had concurred in his election, which threw doubt on his orthodoxy, 
and determined Damasus to recognise Paulinus, who was subsequently or- 
dained by Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, at the solicitation of some Catho- 
lics. The suspicions entertained to his prejudice were known to be un- 
just by St. Basil and other Eastern prelates, who supported him in conse- 
quence of the priority of his ordination. Damasus abstained, in his re- 
gard, from any positive act of exclusion, or of communion ; and Meletius 
persisted in maintaining his claims, with avowed reverence for the au- 
thority of the Pontiff. According to the established discipline of those 
ages, the patriarch, when duly elected and consecrated, received jurisdic- 
tion, under the obligation of communicating his election to the Pope, whose 
letters of communion confirmed him in the possession of his see : but the 
withholding of official intercourse, when not followed by positive excom- 
munication, did not strip him of his authority, much less did it place him 
beyond the pale of the Church. Meletius continued to profess adhesion 
to the Pontiff, so that when Sapores, the commander of the forces, came 
to Antioch, by order of the emperor Gratian, to deliver the churches to the 
bishop in communion with Damasus, Meletius satisfied him that he enjoyed 
it, and accordingly got possession. Vitalis had been consecrated bishop of 
the same see, by Apollinaris, and professed the same reverence for the pon- 
tifical authority. In fact, the three claimants were loud in their declara- 
tions of attachment to Borne. St. Jerom, who was then in Syria, being 
perplexed by their conflicting pretensions, tells the Pope that, to avoid mis- 
take, he held communion with the Egyptian confessor, that is, with Peter, 
Patriarch of Alexandria, then an exile in Syria, who had assisted at the 
Boman Council : " I follow here your colleagues, the confessors of Egypt, 
and amid the merchant vessels, I lie hid in a little boat. I know nothing 
of Vitalis — I reject Meletius — I care not for Paulinus. Whoever does 
not gather with you, scatters ; that is, whoever is not of Christ is of Anti- 
christ."* He looked on Meletius with the suspicion with which he was 
generally viewed in the West, and therefore declined his communion. 
To relieve himself from perplexity, he addressed a second letter to Da- 
masus : " The Church here being split into three parties, each is eager to 
draw me to itself. The venerable authority of the monks who dwell 
around, assails me. In the mean time I cry aloud : Whoever is united 
with the chair of Peter, is mine. Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus 
affirm that they are united with you : if one only made the assertion, I 
could believe him : but in the present case either two or all of thetn de- 
ceive me. Therefore, I beseech you, blessed father — by the cross of the 
Lord, by the becoming zeal for the faith,-)" by the passion of Christ — as you 



* Ep. xv. 

f Necessary regard for the integrity of faith, which is the glory of the Church. 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



105 



succeed the apostles in dignity, so may you rival them in merit — so may 
you sit on the throne of judgment with the twelve — so may another gird 
you like Peter in your old age* — so may you gain the franchise of the 
heavenly city with Paul — declare to me by your letter, with whom should 
I hold communion in Syria. Do not disregard a soul for which Christ 
died/'")" This is the language of a man, who feels that it is the duty of a 
disciple of Christ, in whatever part of the world he may be, to communi- 
cate with the Bishop of Rome, through the local prelate enjoying his com- 
munion. 

A compromise between Paulinus and Meletius was subsequently effected, 
as Sozomen and Socrates testify, and both prelates were recognised by the 
Council of Aquileja, held in 381. Meletius presided in a Council of An- 
tioch, held in 379, which solemnly embraced the decree of Damasus and 
the Roman synod against the errors of Apollinaris, adding anathema to 
the gainsayers. The acts of this council were accepted at Rome, and placed 
in the archives of that See, bound up with those of the Roman synod, as 
appears from ancient manuscripts. The fathers of the Council of Constan- 
tinople, held in 382, in which Meletius was present, in their letter to the 
Pope, bore testimony to the integrity of his faith, of which the acts of the 
Council of Antioch, which they mentioned with praise, were a splendid 
evidence. His acceptance of the doctrinal definition of Damasus, and the 
Pontiff's approval of the proceedings of the Council of Antioch, were 
solemn acts of direct communion, which show that Meletius did not die 
separated from unity, from which, in reality, he was never excluded. 

It was worthy of the truly liberal spirit of the Holy See to render homage 
after death to a bishop, whom, for a considerable period, it treated with 
distrust, under false impressions, which time has removed. The integrity 
of the faith of Meletius, the legitimacy of his ordination, and the eminence 
of his virtues, were generally recognised after his death, when rival pre- 
tensions and interests could no longer cast a cloud over them. The suc- 
cessors of Damasus united with the East in the celebration of his virtues, 
and his name was inscribed on the records of illustrious prelates of the 
Church, who, in difficult times, preserved the faith, and cultivated piety. 
His example may serve to show, that a man can attain to sanctity and 
salvation, although, from misconception and misrepresentation, he be not 
favored by the chief bishop with special marks of communion ; but it offers 
no security to such as persevere in sects separated from the Church, con- 
trary to the divine law, which enjoins submission to our lawful pastors, 
and contrary to the divine constitution of the Church, of which unity is 
the distinctive principle. Meletius was neither leader nor member of a 
sect. He held the truth as it is in Christ ; he received with docility the 
teaching of the chief bishop ; he professed adhesion to his authority, and 
it was his misfortune, not his fault, that he could not for a time succeed in 
dissipating the suspicions that deprived him of official intercourse. 



* He wishes him the crown of martyrdom. 



f Ep. xvi. Damaso. 



106 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



The great solicitude of the Bishops of Antioch to enjoy the communion 
of the Apostolic See, appears from the efforts made in their behalf by St. 
John Chrysostom, on his elevation to the See of Constantinople. Having 
been priest of that Church, he charged the ambassadors whom he sent to 
Rome to announce his own election, to use their influence to procure a 
formal recognition of the actual bishop of Antioch. Ambassadors also came 
from Flavian himself, as Innocent I. testifies : " The Church of Antioch, 
which the blessed apostle Peter, before he came to the city of Rome, illus- 
trated by his presence, as a sister of the Roman Church, did not suffer 
herself to be long estranged from her, for, having sent ambassadors, she 
sought and obtained peace/'* The misunderstanding had lasted seventeen 
years; but it implied no difference of belief, or breach of unity. It arose 
from the difficulty of putting facts in their true light, and dissipating pre- 
judices honestly entertained against individuals. It is freely admitted, 
that, in such circumstances, the want of direct communion with the Apos- 
tolic See may not be fatal to the claims of membership of the Catholic 
Church : but the nature of unity and catholicity manifestly forbids^us to 
consider as members of the Church, those who positively reject her com- 
munion. 

Mr. Palmer, after having assigned unity as a mark of the Church, labors 
with great industry to prove that it is possible that she may be divided in 
respect of external communion : thus throwing down with one hand what 
he builds up with the other. He particularly endeavors to show, that at 
various times the communion between the Church of Rome and the orien- 
tal churches was actually interrupted, as after the death of St. Chrysostom, 
when the Roman Church, followed by all the West, refused to communi- 
cate with the oriental bishops, especially with Theophilus of Alexandria, 
as long as they declined to re-establish the memory of the holy Bishop of 
Constantinople. This, however, was not an absolute excommunication, 
excluding them from the pale of the Church, but a denial of the usual 
marks of brotherhood, in order to compel them to do justice to the me- 
mory of a persecuted prelate. When Acacius, bishop of the same see, was 
excommunicated by the Pope, he could no longer be a member of the 
Church, since Christ binds in heaven those whom His vicar binds on 
earth. The oriental bishops who still adhered to Acacius, violated their 
duty, and such of them as professed the heresy for which he was con- 
demned, forfeited thereby the communion of the Church : but those who 
only indulged partisan attachment, without rejecting the faith and com- 
munion of the Pontiff, and who were not expressly separated from the 
Church by his act, might remain included among her members. The 
period of thirty-five years which elapsed before this dissension was healed, 
was not one of absolute interruption. The communion between the East 
and the West was partially suspended, rather than broken off ; the Pope 
refusing to give tokens of his communion to the oriental prelates, as long 



* Ep. xxiii. Bonifacio, col. 852, t. 1. Coustant. 



CENTRE OF UNITY. 



107 



as the name of Acacius remained on the sacred tablets. The condition on 
which a reconciliation took place, was a solemn engagement on the part 
of John, Bishop of Constantinople, not to allow to be inscribed on the 
tablets of the Church, the names of any who did not in all things har- 
monize with the Apostolic See : "¥e promise," said he, writing'to Pope 
Hormisdas, in the year 515, that " hereafter the names of such as are se- 
parated from the communion of the Catholic Church, that is, such as do 
not in all things harmonize with the Apostolic See, shall not be recited in 
the celebration of the sacred mysteries."* Thus harmony with the Holy 
See was declared to be identical with communion with the Catholic 
Church. 

In the great schism between the rival claimants of the papal chair, in 
the fourteenth century, on which Mr. Palmer lays great stress, there was 
no rejection of the pontifical authority, which on the contrary all solemnly 
recognised, although the doubt which existed as to the fact — who was 
lawful Pontiff — prevented their mutual intercourse. No instance can be 
produced from the history of the Church to prove, that any one who openly 
denies the primacy of the Apostolic See, or who is solemnly excommuni- 
cated by the lawful occupant of the papal chair, can be regarded as a 
member of the Church : much less can it be shown that any local church, 
or any collection of churches, absolutely separated by their own act, or by 
the act of the Pontiff, from his communion, can be considered as portions 
of the universal Church. The unanimous teaching of the fathers demon- 
strates that the unity of the Church is indivisible, and that she is one, not 
only in each place by her local government, but throughout the world, by 
the compact connection of all her parts ; on which account she is com- 
pared by St. Cyprian to a tree, whose branches spread all around, to a 
spring whose waters flow through numberless channels, and to the sun 
whose rays shed light abroad throughout the entire earth : " The Church 
is one, which, by the growth of its fruitfulness, is spread widely into a 
multitude : as there are many rays of the sun, but one light, and many 
branches of a tree, but one trunk planted in the clinging root : and though 
from one source many rivers flow, so that there seem to be many several 
streams, by reason of the fulness of the abundant flood, yet is the oneness 
maintained in the original spring. Take off a ray from the body of the 
sun, the unity of light admits no division ; cut off a stream from the 
source — that which is cut off dries up ; so the Church, filled throughout 
with the light of the Lord, spreads its rays through the whole world ; yet 
is it only one light which is everywhere diffused ; nor is the unity of the 
body severed : by reason of its abundant fulness it stretches its rays into 
all the earth, it pours widely its flowing streams, yet there is one head, 
and one beginning, and one mother, teeming with continual fruitfulness."']" 



* Cone. t. ii. col. 107T. 



f Cyprian de Unit. Eccl. 



CHAPTER X. 



l 1. — DISTURBANCES AT CORINTH. 

It is declared by St. Paul that heresies are attended with advantage, 
inasmuch as they serve to try men, and to distinguish the faithful and 
stable from the unsteady and perverse : " there must be also heresies, that 
they also who are approved, may be made manifest among you."* They 
serve, at the same time, to mark more clearly the faith of the Church, and 
to render it more illustrious. In like manner schisms, controversies, and 
scandals, in the designs of Providence, become instrumental for good, afford 
us a salutary warning to shun strife and crime, and lead us to respect au- 
thority. 

Toward the end of the first century, before the death of St. John the 
apostle, violent commotions broke out at Corinth, in which the clergy suf- 
fered by the opposition of rash and misguided men. The persecutions 
which, about the same time, raged at Rome, prevented immediate action in 
the case on the part of the Church of this city ; but as soon as an interval 
of peace was granted, an effort to restore harmony was made in the name 
of the Roman Church, and a letter of expostulation and advice was sent, 
which was so esteemed and venerated, that long afterward it was wont to 
be read publicly in the Church of Corinth, f and is justly valued among 
the most precious monuments of Christian antiquity. Messengers were 
despatched, charged to use every exertion to re-establish order. The terms 
of the letter may not satisfy a fastidious critic that superior authority was 
claimed by the writer, because persuasion only is used; but the judicious 
reader will easily understand, that where passions are excited, they can 
scarcely be subdued by urging abstract views of power. The interposition 
of a distant prelate in the internal affairs of the Corinthian Church, cannot 
be accounted for satisfactorily unless by reference to his universal charge, 
especially as the apostle John, then residing at Ephesus, was much nearer 
to the scene of strife, and could hope to exercise greater personal influence, 
besides the authority of his ofiice.J Had not Clement felt it to be his 

* 1 Cor. xi. 1 9. f Dionys. cor. apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. iv. c. xxiii. 

\ This forms a difficulty in the mind of Dr. Schaff, that an apostle should be in any 
way subordinate to Clement, the Roman Bishop; but it is nowise incompatible with his 
privileges as an apostle to respect the order established by Christ for the benefit of the 
whole Church. 

108 ' - 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



109 



duty, he scarcely would have ventured, in such circumstances, to address 
the revolters. That he wrote the letter, although it bears the name of 
" the Church of God which is at Rome," is attested by IrenEeus, a writer 
of the next age ;* and the title is sufficiently accounted for, by the ancient 
custom of assembling the clergy on occasions of great importance, and 
acting with their advice and concurrence. The bishop and the church 
were identified in such acts, since, as St. Cyprian remarks, "the church 
is the people united with the priest and the flock following its pastor ; 
whence you should know that the bishop is in the church, and the church 
is in the bishop."*)" 

§ 2.— PASCHAL CONTROVERSY. 

The second century affords us more decisive proofs of the official inter- 
ference of the Bishop ot Rome in the affairs of the Eastern churches. A 
difference of discipline in regard to the time of celebrating Easter existed, 
from the commencement, between the churches of Asia Minor and the 
Western churches. The former alleged the authority of St. J ohn the 
evangelist for celebrating it on the same day as the J ews ; thus changing 
the object of the festival, and commemorating the resurrection of our Lord, 
while the Jews ate of the paschal lamb. The Western churches, especially 
the Church of Rome, and also the Church of Alexandria, celebrated it on 
the Sunday following the Jewish feast; not wishing to appear to retain any- 
thing of the abrogated ceremonial. The matter in itself was indifferent, 
and the various usages may have been originally sanctioned by the respec- 
tive apostles, who founded the churches, since variety in discipline may 
be expedient, according to local circumstances. In places where the con- 
verts from Judaism formed the main body of Christians, their transition 
to Christianity was rendered less difficult by retaining the day of their 
solemnity ; and thus the usages of the Asiatic churches may have had the 
sanction of St. John. At Rome, and wherever the churches were chiefly 
composed of converts from heathenism, the same delicate regard to Jewish 
feelings not being required, it seemed expedient to leave no occasion for 
supposing that any legal observance was still in force among Christians. 
Anicetus, who held the chair of St. Peter about the middle of the second 
century, endeavored to persuade Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, on occasion 
of his visit to Rome, to conform to the more general usage ; but the vene- 
rable prelate pleaded so strongly in favor of the custom of the Asiatic 
churches, that Anicetus abstained from any positive prohibition, and 
treated his illustrious guest with the honor which his virtues and station 
deserved. 

Near the close of the same century, Victor, Bishop of Rome, resolved to 
procure uniformity, even by having recourse to severe measures, if necessary. 



* L. iii. adv. heer. c. iii. 



f Ep. lxix. ad Pupianum. 



110 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



The Western bishops were unanimous in desiring it, and among others, 
Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, at the head of a synod in Gaul, wrote to the 
Asiatic churches, strongly recommending it.* A letter to the same effect 
was issued in the name of Victor, by a Roman synod over which he pre- 
sided, exhorting the bishops of Asia to hold synods, in order to bring 
about the change. f At Csesarea of Palestine a numerous Council was 
held, which enacted that the Paschal festival should thenceforward be 
celebrated on Sunday : but Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, with a synod 
in which he presided, persisted in defending the ancient usage. Victor 
resolved on cutting off the refractory from his communion, which so 
alarmed Irenseus, that he wrote to him an earnest letter of remonstrance, 
deprecating the loss of so many churches to Catholic unity, for an obser- 
vance which had been so long tolerated, and reminding him of the wise in- 
dulgence of Anicetus, who treated Polycarp with marked distinction, not- 
withstanding the tenacity with which he clung to the Asiatic practice. J 
All these facts, which are detailed by Eusebius, are not called in question 
by any of the learned. It is, however, doubted whether Victor actually 
pronounced excommunication. 

Of the justice and wisdom of the course pursued by Victor, different 
sentiments may be entertained : but it cannot fairly be questioned that he 
claimed authority over the Asiatic churches, and, at least, threatened to 
employ it, in the severest manner, to compel them to conform to the more 
general usage. The pertinacious adherence of Polycrates and other bi- 
shops to the custom of the East, may be used to show that the ancient 
rites of local churches should not be hastily proscribed, even by the Bishop 
of Rome : but it does not prove that his authority was called in question. 
In the letter of the synod, which maintained the usage, precedents are in- 
sisted on as justifying it; while the obvious reply is omitted, which would 
have been at once conclusive, had Victor no right to control the churches 
of the East. The holding of various local Councils by his orders, the 
compliance of some of them with his injunction, the plea of ancient pre- 
cedent strongly urged by others, the remonstrance of Irenaeus against pre- 
cipitate severity, all concur to prove that the authority of Victor was uni- 
versally admitted, although the justice or expediency of its exercise was 
questioned by some. This is all that is implied in the words of Poly- 
crates : "lam not at all moved by the threats held out to me : for greater 
than I have said : ( It behoveth us to obey God, rather than men. , "§ It 
is plain that he considered Victor as commanding, and menacing; but 
under the false impression that the festival day prescribed by Grod to the 
J ews was still obligatory, he refused obedience to what he deemed an un- 

* See letter of Irenasus, inter Ep. Rom. Pont. Coustant. col. 105. t. i. 
f See letter of Polycrates to Victor, ibidem, col. 100. He states that he had summoned 
the bishops at his request. 

J L. v. Hist. Eccl. c. xxiii. xxiv. 

§ Vide inter Rom. Pontif. epist. studio Petri Coustant, t. i. col. 99. 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



Ill 



just precept, and an abuse of authority. Had he recognised in the Roman 
Bishop no power to command, he would surely at once have repelled the 
attempt to dictate to him, and boldly denied his right of interference. 

Whether Victor actually issued an excommunication, or merely threat- 
ened to issue it, his claim to superior power is manifest. Potter speaks of 
his act as unjust, but adds : "however, it is a good evidence that excom- 
munication was used at this time in the Church. "* He might have said 
with equal truth, that it is good evidence that the Bishop of Borne at that 
early period, claimed power over the bishops of Asia, ordered them to hold 
synods with a view to put his decree in execution, and threatened them 
with excommunication, in case of resistance ; and that those who resisted 
his orders, did not call in question his authority. From the narrative of 
Eusebius, it is clear that his threat was not looked on as an insolent as- 
sumption of power, or an idle waste of words, but that every effort was 
made by argument, remonstrance, and entreaty, to avert its execution. 
The judgment of the entire episcopal body in the Council of Nice, vindi- 
cated the wisdom and foresight of the Pontiff, by classing among heretics 
the Quartodecimans, who, under the false persuasion, that the Mosaic law 
was still obligatory as far as the day of the paschal solemnity was con- 
cerned, persisted in celebrating the Christian festival on the same day on 
which the Jews offered the paschal victim. This is not the only instance 
in which the Popes have proved their deep discrimination, and enlightened 
zeal to reform usages pregnant with danger to the integrity of Christian 
faith, and have received the highest homage that could be rendered to 
their wisdom, by the final adhesion of the episcopal body and of the whole 
Church to their judgment. Like watchful pilots, they were the first to 
discern the distant speck, which gradually grew into a thunder-cloud, and 
burst in fury on the vessel of the Church, whose helm, with steady hand, 
they directed. 

§ 3.— MONTANISM. 

The heresy broached by Montanus, of Mysia, in the decline of the 
second century, prevailed in various parts of Asia Minor and Phrygia. 
The heresiarch denied the lawfulness of second marriages, and the power 
of forgiving heinous sins, such as adultery, murder, and apostasy. Every 
effort was made by his followers to procure from the Bishop of Borne at 
least an indirect sanction for their errors, by the admission of their abet- 
tors to communion : and if the testimony of Tertullian, who embraced the 
sect, can be relied on, they actually succeeded in disposing him')" to write 
to the Asiatic churches to this effect. However, the timely arrival of 
Praxeas, who himself had been of their number, defeated their artifices. J 



* On Church. Government, p. 335. f Tertullian does not give his name. 

J Tertull. Lib. ad Praxeam. 



/ 



112 ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 

The martyrs of Lyons addressed Eieutherius, urging him to oppose the 
progress of the heresy, by the authority of his office, which he accordingly 
employed for that purpose.* Of this mission, St. Jerom says : " Irenaeus, 
a priest of Pothinus, the bishop who then ruled the Church of Lyons, in 
Gaul, was sent as legate by the martyrs of that place to Rome, concerning 
certain ecclesiastical questions. "f 

The decree of the Bishop of Rome, by which adulterers, as well as other 
sinners, were declared admissible to communion, after suitable penance, is 
mentioned by Tertullian in terms that prove him to be a reluctant witness 
to the pontifical supremacy: "I hear that an edict has been published, 
and, indeed, a peremptory one : namely, the bishop of bishops, which 
is equivalent to the sovereign Pontiff, proclaims : I pardon the sins of 
adultery and fornication to such as have performed penance. This is read 
in the Church, and is proclaimed in the Church. "J The authority from 
which this decree emanated, was manifestly supreme, since it was thus 
publicly acknowledged by the solemn promulgation of this "peremptory" 
edict. The Bishop of Rome, of whom Tertullian confessedly speaks, is 
styled by him "bishop of bishops,"§ because he acted as having power 
over other bishops. It is not at all probable, that he employed the lan- 
guage which the Montanist puts in his mouth, since the Popes have al- 
ways abstained from the use of pompous and offensive titles : but his acts 
bespoke him to be the chief bishop, which was tantamount, in the mind 
of Tertullian, to ' sovereign Pontiff/ a title at that time justly detested, on 
account of the idolatrous functions which belonged to the office, although 
after the extirpation of idolatry, it was applied, in an innocuous sense, to 
the High Priest of Christianity. George Stanley Faber admits that the 
primacy was already claimed : "In the time of Tertullian, whose life ex- 
tended into the third century, a considerable advance had plainly been 
made by the See of Rome, in the claim of the primacy, inasmuch as he 
calls the Bishop of that Church the supreme Pontiff, and distinguished 
him with the title of Bishop of bishops." || 

In combating this decree, Tertullian maintained that the power given 
to Peter did not regard the remission of sins, and that, whatever it was, it 
was conferred on him personally, not communicated to the Church at large, 
or even to the local Church, of which he was founder. While recognising 
the Roman Bishop as "Apostolic," that is, successor of the apostle, and 
the Roman Church as Peter's Church, he insists that the duties of the 
bishop " are merely disciplinary, to preside, not imperiously, but minis- 
terially," and denies his right to exercise the power of forgiveness : " I now 



* Euseb. 1. v. Hist. Eccl. c. iii. f Cat. Script. Eccl. t. ir. 113. 

J L. de pudieitia, c. 1. 

\ Pontifex scilicet Maximus, quod est episcopus episcoporum. There is an inversion in 
the sentence, which is quite familiar to Tertullian. 

|| Difficulties of Romanism, by George Stanley Faber. Note, p. 261. Phil. edit. 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 113 

ask your own sentiment, whence do you claim this power for the Church ? 
" If, because the Lord said to Peter, 1 on this rock I will build My Church/ 
i to thee I have given the keys of the kingdom of heaven/ or, ' whatsoever 
thou shalt bind or loose upon earth, shall be bound or loosed in heaven/ 
you presume, on that account, that the power of loosing and binding has 
come down to you, that is, to the whole Church allied to Peter;* who are 
you, to overturn and change the manifest intention of the Lord, who con- 
ferred this on Peter personally ? 1 On thee/ he says, ( I will build My 
Church, and to thee, (not to the Church,) I will give the keys, and 
whatsoever thou shalt bind or loose, not what they shall bind or loose l"f 
This partisan effort to limit the promise to Peter personally, should meet 
with little sympathy from those who strive to extend it to all the apostles, 
and to all bishops : yet Faber triumphs in the sophistry of the Montanist, 
and remarks with complacency : " He flatly denies that it can be construed 
as belonging to what then began to be esteemed as Peter's Church/'J 
It is unfair to speak of this as a nascent opinion, since Tertullian uses 
positive language, and elsewhere refers confidently to the succession of the 
Roman bishops from Peter, and the authority of their teaching. He is 
an unexceptionable witness of the claims of the Bishop of Rome in his 
time, and of the authority which he effectually exercised, and which was 
courted even by opponents, with a view to betray him into some measure 
favorable to their errors. It was felt in Phrygia, where the sect numbered 
a multitude of votaries ; and in Africa, where it was assailed by the power- 
ful logician whose subtilties we have exposed. At the same time it was 
venerated in Gaul, by the martyrs, who from their dungeons implored its 
exercise, to preserve the faith in its integrity. 

§ 4.— CONTROVERSY CONCERNING BAPTISM. 

The dispute concerning baptism administered by heretics rose to a high 
pitch of excitement in the middle of the third century. The various sects 
that denied the mystery of the Trinity, naturally introduced changes into 
the form of words used in baptizing, by which it was entirely vitiated ; 
and, of course, no account was had of the act, when converts from them 
sought to be admitted to the Catholic Church. The custom of baptizing 
such persons was extended in some parts of Africa to converts from all the 
sects, even to such as had been baptized with the due form of words j 
which usage had received the sanction of Agrippinus, Bishop of Carthage, 
in a Council held early in this century. St. Cyprian, through horror for 
heresy, and love for Catholic unity, added his approval in several Councils, 
" reprobating the baptism of heretics, and sent the acts of an African 
synod held on this subject, to Stephen, who was at that time Bishop of 
the city of Rome."§ His ambassadors, however, were not received to com- 



* Ad omnem ecclesiam Petri propinquam. 
J Difficulties of Romanism, Note, p. 261. 



f L. de pudicitia, c. xxi. 

$ St. Jerom, Dial. adv. Lucifer. 



114 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



munion by the Pontiff, who was highly displeased at this attempt to establish 
a usage different from the general custom of the Church, founded on ancient 
tradition. In reply, he sent to Cyprian a command in these terms : " Let 
no change be made, contrary to what has been handed down." This de- 
cree was received, with murmurs by the bishops of Africa. Cyprian at 
their head, in a subsequent Council, continued to adhere to the usage 
which he had previously sanctioned, professing, however, that he did not 
mean to force others to conform to his practice, since each was responsible 
to God for the administration of his diocese. "No one of us/' he says, 
u constitutes himself a bishop of bishops, or, by tyrannical terror, compels 
his colleagues to the necessity of obedience, since every bishop enjoys his 
own judgment according to the liberty of his power, and can no more be 
judged by another, than he can judge another. Let us all await the judg- 
ment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who alone has the power hoth to place us 
in the government of His Church, and to judge of our conduct/'* "SVere 
these words taken as they siund. they weuld suppose each bishop absolute 
and independent ; whereas all antiquity attests that the action of individual 
bishops may be directed and controlled by synodical enactments — not to 
speak at present of the authority of the Holy See — and that delinquents 
may be removed for mal-administration, or misconduct. St. Cyprian, then, 
cannot be understood in this sense. He himself, as we shall hereafter see. 
had solicited the Pontiff to remove Marcian from Aries, and approved of 
the deposition of Basilides, which had been made in a Spanish Council. 
The liberty which he claimed was in matters not decided by the supreme 
authority of the Church, as St. Augustin testifies. ~^ He stated, with com- 
placency, that neither he himself, nor any of his African colleagues, acted 
as •• bishop of bishops," because all were willing to allow a difference of 
sentiment and practice in the matter of baptism ; which not conceiving to 
interest faith, they referred to the judgment of G-od ; and he attached the 
more importance to their harmony in sentiment, as being totally uncon- 
strained and uninfluenced. If he be supposed to use these terms sarcas- 
tically, with reference to Stephen, it must be allowed that this Pontiff 
claimed and exercised the authority of a superior. Such is the tenor of 
the extant documents, which are eonsidered by most writers as genuine, 
although their authenticity was questioned by some so far back as the lays 
of St. Augustin.t 

The practice of baptizing anew converts from heresy had also crept into 
sine provinces of Asia, and •• Stephen had written concerning Helenus, 
ana Firmilian, and all the priests thr:ughou: Cilieia. Cappadooia. and all 
the neighboring provinces, that he would not communicate with them, for 
this same reas:n. that they rebaptized heret::s."'§ Dionysius, Bishop :: 

* Sententiae episeoporam. Lxxsvii. de hcer. bapt. 

f De Bapc contra Donatistas, L iiL e. iiL 

± Ep. xeiiL ad Yinceniium RogaL £ 38. 

\ Dionys. Ales, apud Eu*eb. L v. Mist. EccL 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



115 



Alexandria, who states the fact, wrote to Stephen, deprecating this se- 
verity. 

This serious dispute shows the authority which the Bishop of Rome then 
exercised, and which, even when resisted, on account of its supposed abuse, 
was, in fact, acknowledged. The transmission of the proceedings of the 
African synod to Rome, was a marked testimony of the pre-eminence of 
the Roman Bishop j whose immediate action in the case proves that he 
conceived himself authorized to judge of the correctness of the canons, and 
to rescind them, when found in opposition to the general and ancient 
usages of the Church. It was viewed in this light by St. Vincent op 
Lerins, a profound writer of the fifth century, who points to it as an in- 
stance in which novelty was successfully opposed by the successors of 
Peter. "When, therefore, all cried out from all quarters against the 
novelty, and all priests, in every place, struggled against it, each according 
to his zeal, Pope Stephen, of blessed memory, who at that time was pre- 
late of the Apostolic See, resisted, in conjunction, indeed, with his col- 
leagues, but yet more than his colleagues, thinking it fit, as I suppose, 

THAT HE SHOULD SURPASS ALL OTHERS IN THE DE VOTEDNESS OF HIS 
FAITH, AS MUCH AS HE EXCELLED THEM BY THE AUTHORITY OF HIS 

station. Finally, in the epistle which was then sent to Africa, he de- 
creed in these words : that ' no innovation should be admitted, but 

THAT WHAT WAS HANDED DOWN, SHOULD BE RETAINED.' What force 

had the African Council or decree ? None, through the mercy of God."* 
The history of this controversy plainly proves, that on both sides it was 
maintained that Stephen held the place of Peter. We are asked how 
could Cyprian have dared resist, if he had regarded Stephen as his eccle- 
siastical superior ? The answer is obvious : He believed that Stephen 
rashly employed his authority, to proscribe a practice intimately connected 
with the unity and sanctity of the Church. Respectful remonstrance is 
permitted, whenever authority is injudiciously exercised. Cyprian felt that 
to acknowledge the baptism of heretics was virtually to sanction heresy, 
by communicating to an adulteress the unalienable privileges of the pure 
Spouse of Christ; and resting on her acknowledged unity, he rejected the 
pretensions of every sect. Stephen, relying on ancient usage and tradi- 
tion, condemned the novel practice, and the decree made in its support ; 
yet he did not issue a formal definition of faith. St. Augustin confidently 
says, that Cyprian would have readily acquiesced, had the matter been 
placed in a clear light by the examination and decision of a general Coun- 
cil, which does not imply that he would have submitted to no other au- 
thority, but that by this means the general practice of the Church and her 
ancient tradition would have been clearly proved. In the facts of the 
case we have evidence of a most unequivocal exercise of superior power on 
the part of the Pontiff. On the other hand, we behold the advocates of 



* Commonit. c. viii. 



116 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHOPJTY. 



the novel usage deriving an argument against his conduct from his station 
as successor of St. Peter, and official guardian of Catholic unity. On this 
point Firmilian of Cappadocia especially relied, in his irreverent invective 
against the pontifical decree. "I am/' said he, "justly indignant at this 
open and manifest folly of Stephen, who, while he boasts of the rank of 
his bishopric, and contends that he holds the succession of Peter, upon 

WHOM THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE CHURCH WERE PLACED, brings in, 

nevertheless, many other rocks, and builds the new edifices of many 
churches, defending their baptism by his authority. The greatness of the 
error, and the strange blindness of him who says, that the remission of 
sins can be given in the synagogues of heretics, and does not abide on the 
foundation of the one Church, which was originally built by 
Christ on the rock, may be understood from this, that to Peter 
alone Christ said : ' Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be 
bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed 
also in heaven.' "* Had the claims of Stephen to the place and power of 
Peter been questionable, Firmilian doubtless would have denied them, in 
order to show that the decree forbidding innovation was void of all autho- 
rity ) whereas he contents himself with drawing thence an argument for 
his error, and accuses Stephen of dishonoring the memory of the apostles 
Peter and Paul, whose place he occupied, by referring to them the usage 
of admitting the baptism of heretics. The language which he uses toward 
Stephen is an evidence of the warmth of feeling with which he defended 
his favorite practice, in opposition to the high authority which condemned 
it. Had it been in his power to deny the authority itself, he would surely 
have done it in no measured terms. 

Writing to Jubaian, against baptism administered by heretics, St. Cy- 
prian maintained that the remission of sins cannot be imparted by it, 
because heretics have no share in the powers of forgiveness granted to 
Peter, the foundation of the Church, and the source of unity, which power 
was communicated to the other apostles likewise : "It is manifest where 
and through whom the remission of sins, namely, that which is given in 
baptism, can be given. For the Lord gave this power in the first 
place to Peter, on whom He built His Church, and whence He 
established and showed the origin of unity ; that what he would 
loose on earth, should be loosed also in heaven. And after the resurrec- 
tion, He speaks to the apostles likewise, saying : ' As the Father hath sent 
Me, I also send you.' "f " The Lord cries out : Let him that thirsteth, 
come and drink of the streams of living water that flow from Him. 
Whither shall he who thirsts come ? Is it to heretics, where there is no 
fountain or river of living water, or to the Church, which is one, and was 
founded by the voice of the Lord upon one, who also received 
its keys ?"{ Although St. Cyprian, under the erroneous persuasion that 



* Ep. Firmiliani inter Cyprian. f Ep. lxxiii. § 7. Jubajano. % Ibidem, g 11. 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



117 



baptism administered by heretics is not valid, uses these texts to establish 
this false position, his acknowledgment of the primacy is in no degree 
weakened by this circumstance. His admission that Peter was the rock 
on which Christ built His Church, and that he is the source of unity, is 
the more important, inasmuch as it was his interest to call it in question, 
while he resisted a mandate of the bishop, who, he acknowledged, held 
the place of Peter. " Custom," he says elsewhere, " must not be allowed 
to prescribe, but reason must prevail. For Peter, whom the Lord chose 
to be first, and on whom He built His Church, when Paul after- 
ward disputed with him in regard to circumcision, neither insolently 
claimed, nor arrogantly assumed any thing, saying that he held the pri- 
macy, and should be obeyed by those who were recent in the faith and 
posterior to him in the order of time.* Nor did he despise Paul, because 
he had been a persecutor of the Church ; but he admitted the counsel of 
truth, and readily agreed to the just reason which Paul alleged ; giving us 
an example of concord and patience, that we should not obstinately cherish 
our own sentiments, but rather adopt as our own those which are some- 
times usefully and wisely suggested by our brethren and colleagues. "f 
This observation is evidently directed to show that Stephen should not rest 
on his superior authority j but rather imitate the condescension of Peter, 
who, waiving the consideration of his own primacy, yielded to the remon- 
strance of Paul. 

Mr. Allies, with his accustomed candor, avowed that St. Cyprian ac- 
knowledged the primacy, notwithstanding his resistance to the decree of 
Stephen : " I most fully believe, be it observed, that Cyprian acknowledged 
the Roman primacy, that he admitted certain high prerogatives to be 
lodged in the Roman Pontiff, as St. Peter's successor, which did not belong 
to any other bishop. ,r J If any thing occur in his writings apparently de- 
rogatory to the pontifical authority, we may decline replying to it in the 
words of Augustin : " I will not review what he uttered against Stephen 
in the heat of dispute/'! 

It is not certain that St. Cyprian finally conformed to the decree of St. 
Stephen. St. Jerom says : that a his effort (to change the ancient custom) 
proved vain; and finally those very bishops, who with him had deter- 
mined that heretics should be rebaptized, turning back to the ancient cus- 
tom, issued a new decree." || St. Vincent of Lerins does not name him as 
the defender of the African usage. Eusebius does not state any act done 
by him in support of it, subsequently to the pontifical prohibition.^" St. 
Augustin supposes him to have retracted, if he at all entertained the er- 



* Called after him to the apostolate. 

f Cypr. ad Quint. Ep. lxxi. p. 297. Ed. Wirceb. 

X Church of England Cleared, &e. p. 32. 

§ L. v. Contra Donat. c. 25. 

|| Dial. adv. Lucifer. 

^[ L. vii. c. iii. Hist. Eccl. 



118 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



roneous views imputed to him, of which he insinuates a doubt, while he 
strongly insists that he persevered in unity, and atoned for his involuntary 
error, by the abundance of his charity, and the glory of his martyrdom. 
In reply to the Donatists, he says : " Cyprian either did not at all think, 
as you represent him to have thought, or he afterwards corrected the error 
by the rule of truth ; or he covered this blemish of his fair breast with 
the abundance of his charity, while he defended most eloquently the unity 
of the Church spread throughout the whole world, and held most stead- 
fastly the bond of peace."* "If this glorious branch," (of the mystical 
vine,) he elsewhere says, " had in this respect any need of any purification, 
it was cleansed by the pruning-knife of martyrdom, not because he was 
slain for the name of Christ, but because he was slain in the bosom of 
unity for the name of Christ; for he himself wrote, and most confidently 
asserted, that they who are out of unity, though they should die for that 
name, maybe slain, but cannot be crowned, "f "You are, indeed, ac- 
customed to object to us the letters of Cyprian, the opinion of Cyprian, the 
Council of Cyprian : why do you take the authority of Cyprian for your 
schism, and reject his example for the peace of the Church?" J 

"We shall take leave to add the reflections of Dr. Xevin on this contro- 
versy. "As it is, the whole case tells strongly in favor of the supremacy 
of the Roman See, and not against it as is sometimes pretended. How 
came Stephen to assert such authority, in opposition to whole provinces of 
the Church east and west, if it were not on the ground of previously ac- 
knowledged prerogative and right ? Or how could the pretension do more 
than call forth derision, if no such ground existed for it in fact in the 
general mind of the Church ? It is easy to talk of his presumption and 
pride, and of a regular system of usurpation kept up with success on the 
part of the Roman pontiffs generally. But that is simply to beg the whole 
question in dispute. The hypothesis is too violent. It destroys itself. 
Stephen was neither fool nor knave ; and yet he must have been both on 
a grand scale, to play the part he did here out of mere wanton ambition, 
usurping powers to which he himself well knew, as all the world knew 
besides, he had no lawful claim whatever. Both Cyprian and Firmilian 
are themselves witnesses, in fact, that a true central authority did belong 
to the Bishop of Rome. What they complain of is its supposed abuse. 
They feel the force of it very plainly in spite of themselves. This is just 
what makes them so restive under its exercise. Had it been mere false 
pretension, they could have afforded to let it pass by them as the idle 
wind. They knew it however to be more than that. Then again, it 
turned out in the end that Stephen was in truth right. His judgment 
proved to be, with proper distinctions afterwards, the real voice of the 
Catholic Church, and has remained in full force down to the present 
time."§ 



* Ep. Vincent. 

X L. ii. de bapt. contra Donat. c. iii. p. 98. 



f Ep. cviii. ad Macr. 

I " Cyprian," M. E. November, 1852. 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



119 



I 5.— DONATISM. 

The Donatists were originally engaged in a mere personal contest, in 
which the disappointed ambition of Majorinus was chiefly interested. 
They sought to induce the Emperor Constantine to second their efforts 
against Cecilian, the Catholic Bishop of Carthage, who had been ordained 
by Felix of Aptugna, a bishop whom they accused of having delivered the 
sacred books to the heathens in time of persecution. " Constantine/' says 
St. Augustin, " not daring to judge a bishop, committed to bishops the 
trial and decision of the case : which took place in the city of Rome, Mel- 
chiades, Bishop of that Church, presiding, amid many of his colleagues. 
The emperor ordered the parties to sail to Borne, and present themselves 
before the Bishop of that See, with three bishops of G-aul, as was conform- 
able to the Divine law.f This law required that a bishop should be 
judged, not by a secular tribunal, but by bishops, in a case where the 
very title to his office depended on the issue of the trial. The same law 
constituted the Bishop of Borne chief or supreme judge, whence the sen- 
tence is ascribed to him by St. Augustin and St. Optatus. The dignity of 
the See of Carthage, to which the primacy of all the African churches was 
attached, rendered it fit that the charges against its prelate should, in the 
first instance, be laid before the highest tribunal. 

That Melchiades sat in judgment of his own right as the highest ec- 
clesiastical judge, appears from the freedom with which he acted, in se- 
lecting a number of Italian bishops to aid him in the trial. The Donatists 
had sought to induce Constantine to submit the case for examination to 
the bishops of Gaul, where persecution had not raged under Constantius 
Chlorus; from which circumstance they affected to hope for a more im- 
partial investigation of the alleged guilt of the African bishops. The em- 
peror so far yielded to their importunities as to associate with Melchiades 
three bishops of that nation ; but the Pontiff feeling that their presence 
was intended to satisfy the Donatists of the impartiality of the trial, with- 
out interfering with the rights of his see, summoned fifteen Italian bishops 
to unite with them in hearing the cause : a liberty which he could not 
have taken, had he been a mere delegate. He thus plainly showed, 
that the imperial commission was not designed to add to, or take from his' 
official authority, although it was calculated to give civil force to his 
sentence, and secure its execution. 

The moderation and indulgence of Melchiades in the case of the Dona- 
tists are justly admired by St. Augustin. A secular judge rigorously de- 
cides according to the letter of the law, and the merits of the case, having 
generally no power to qualify or mitigate the sentence. The ecclesiastical 
judge has truth and justice always in view; but he is empowered to tern- 

— — 

* Epist. cv. olim. xvi. f Vide ep. Constantiai Miltiadi. 



120 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



per the exercise of justice, so as to procure the salvation of the guilty, 
and dispose them for submission, not only by remitting the penalty, but 
even by extending favor. Thus it was that Melchiades, after he had pro- 
nounced Cecilian innocent, undertook to conciliate his prosecutors. " How 
admirable, " exclaims Augustin, "was the final sentence of Melchiades! 
how faultless ! how upright ! how provident and peaceful ! By it he did 
not venture to remove from the college of bishops his colleagues, against 
whom nothing had been proved ; but, having passed special censure on 
Donatus alone, whom he had found to be the author of the whole disorder, 
he gave to the others the opportunity of regaining a sound state, being 
ready to give letters of communion even to such as were known to have 
been ordained by Majorinus; so that wherever there were two bishops, in 
consequence of the dissension, he ordered him who had been first ordained 
to be confirmed in the see, and another flock to be committed to the go- 
vernment of the other. ! excellent man ! ! child of Christian peace, 
and father of the Christian people !"* The power and authority of Mel- 
chiades are manifest from this decision. He regulates the claims of the 
contending parties, and requires from some such sacrifice of rights as is ne- 
cessary to promote harmony. For the general interests of Christian unity, 
he removes bishops to other sees, according to the accidental circumstance 
of priority of ordination. In a word, he arranges the affairs of the distant 
churches of Africa with entire freedom, but with a strict regard to charity 
and peace. 

The complaints of the Donatists to Constantine of the injustice of the 
Roman sentence appear to some to have assumed the form of an appeal ; 
which, however, was not strictly the case, since it is not usual for judges, 
from whose sentence the appeal is lodged, to sit in the higher court, and 
revise the cause with their colleagues. f It is certain that Constantine 
granted a new trial, which may be more properly called a revision of the 
proceedings, to take place in a numerous assembly at Aries, in which the 
Roman judges were present, and Melchiades was represented by his le- 
gates. This was a measure which the emperor declared to be altogether 
unnecessary ; but he wished to confound the boldness of the Donatists, by 
the number of their judges, who, he felt confident, would renew the sen- 
tence already passed on them. The matter as yet was personal, rather 
than doctrinal : the trial of a bishop was acknowledged to be of ecclesiasti- 
cal cognizance : Constantine could well have closed their mouths for ever, 
by insisting on the execution of the Roman sentence ; but he suffered him- 
self to be importuned, until he granted that which was irregular. The 
weakness of the prince, who was not yet a Christian, only served to show 
forth more splendidly the eminent dignity of the Pontiff ; who, consenting 



* Ep. xliii. olim. clxii. n. 16. 

f This however, takes place in the Supreme Court of the United States. 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY. 



121 



to the revision of the cause, despatched his legates to preside in his place, 
being unwilling to leave any thing untried which could place the facts in 
clearer light, and lead the misguided to the peace and unity of the Church. 
It is true that St. Augustin does not, in stating these facts, expressly cen- 
sure the conduct of the emperor in granting a new trial, but no doubt can 
be entertained that he deemed it irregular, since, when the Pelagians, 
after their condemnation by Pope Innocent, clamored for a new examina- 
tion of their doctrines, he cried out : Why do you still seek an investi- 
gation, which has already taken place before the Apostolic See ?"* 

In the Council which was held at Aries in 314, bishops were assembled 
from Sicily, Campania, Apulia, Dalmatia, Italy, Gaul, Britain, Spain, 
Mauritania; Sardinia, Africa, and Numidia, who, at the conclusion of 
their proceedings, addressed "the most beloved, most glorious Pope, Syl- 
vester," in terms of deserved reverence, denoting his apostolic authority : 
" Would to God, most beloved brother, you had been present at this great 
spectacle ! we feel convinced that a severer sentence would have been 
passed on them, (the Donatists ;) and you sitting in judgment with us, 
our assembly would have experienced greater exultation. But you could 
not leave those parts where the apostles sit, (in judgment,) and their 
bloodf incessantly attests the Divine glory. "J The fathers made known 
to the Pontiff their decrees on various points, that through him, who had 
the great dioceses § under his charge, they might be communicated 
to all the churches. The greater power of the Roman Bishop appears 
from the severity of the sentence which was expected from him ; and his 
office, as successor of the apostles, is clearly marked as the source of his 
authority. 

The Donatists appealed, as in a secular and profane cause, to the final 
judgment of the emperor, who, yielding again to their solicitations, took 
cognizance of it, but confirmed the decision. 

I am not obliged to prove, that Melchiades, of his own right, could 
have tried and judged the African bishops, without the aid of any Coun- 
cil, or the liberty of appeal. It is enough for my present purpose, that 
the eminent authority of the Roman Bishop was manifest in the pro- 
ceedings, and that he exercised a power which the emperor could not 
delegate, by his enactment in regard to the Donatist bishops returning to 
unity. 

Thus it is clear, that in the chief controversies of the second, third, and 
fourth centuries, the authority of the Roman Bishop was exercised and 



* Oper. imperf. contra Julianum, L ii. c. ciii. 
f The memory of their martyrdom. 
J Ep. ii. Syn. Arelat. 

$ " Qui majores dioeceses tenes." From the ancient plot of the empire, ( Vetus Notitia 
Imperii) it appears that the six provinces of the West were so styled, namely, Africa, 
Dlyricum, Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain. 



122 



ANCIENT EXAMPLES OF PAPAL AUTHORITY, 



admitted. To imagine that tie interfered in Asia and in Africa, and 
menaced the bishops with excommunication, without having any authority 
superior to theirs, is to indulge in the speculations of fancy against the 
evidence of facts. To ascribe his authority to ecclesiastical arrangement, 
is to mistake its character altogether, since it was exercised before any 
General Council had been convened, and was always referred, not only by 
its claimants, but even by those who, in particular cases, opposed it, to a 
divine origin, namely, the privileges bestowed by Christ on Peter. 



CHAPTER XL 



I 1.— CONSTANCY OF THE HOLY SEE. 

As the confession of the divinity of Christ gave occasion to the sublime 
promise of the primacy, and the prayer of Christ was offered for Peter 
that his faith might not fail, it is the chief duty of his successors to guard 
with jealous care the integrity of divine revelation. St. Chrysostom says 
that " Christ ordained Peter teacher of the world. "* Theophylact, a Greek 
writer of the eleventh century, thus paraphrases the address of our Lord 
to Peter at the last supper : " Since I regard thee as prince of the dis- 
ciples, after thou shalt have wept for denying Me, confirm thy brethren, 
for it behoves thee to do so, since thou, after Me, art the rock and founda- 
tion of the Church. "f This duty has been strictly discharged by the Bi- 
shops of Eome, whose primacy has been signally exercised in proclaiming 
the divine truths without reserve, and proscribing every error opposed to 
them. In the confidence that the prayer of Christ was effectual, each 
Pontiff exercised his high prerogative, giving to Him the glory : " What 
He asked He obtained," says Innocent III., speaking of the prayer of 
Christ, " since He was always heard for His reverence : on which account 
the faith of the Apostolic See has never failed in any difficulty, but has 
always remained entire and undefiled, that the privilege of Peter might 
continue inviolate. "J 

From a very early period, heretics sought to corrupt the doctrine of the 
Roman Church, whose faith, even before St. Paul visited it, was celebrated 
throughout the whole world j but in nothing has the providence of Cod 
been more manifest, than in its preservation, and in the energy with which 
the Roman Bishops have maintained it. They can affirm with propriety 
that their weapons " are powerful through God to the destruction of forti- 
fications, subverting of counsels, and every height that exalteth itself 
against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every under- 
standing to the obedience of Christ, and having in readiness to revenge 
every disobedience." § In condemning error, the Pope is guided by the 
tradition of the Roman Church, derived from her founders, as St. Irenseus 



* To; oiKovphris txsipoTovrjoe SiSaoKoXov. Horn, lxxxviii. in Joan. t. viii. p. 527, edit. Montf. 
j In Luc. xxii. J Serm. ii. in consecr. Pont. Max. § 2 Cor. x. 4. 

123 



124 GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 

states, and by the tradition of all the churches, which, being in close com- 
munion with him, concur in their testimony. The faith of which he is 
the guardian, is not his mere private sentiment, much less his conjecture; 
but that which the Father revealed, and which having been once delivered 
to the Saints, can never be lost, or adulterated, while the promises of 
Christ retain their force. It is not any prevailing opinion among the 
clergy of Rome which he proposes to be believed ; but that doctrine which 
is contained in the symbols of faith, and in other authoritative documents, 
which, together with his colleagues throughout the world, he has re- 
ceived from his predecessors. When Leo sent to Flavian, Bishop of Con- 
stantinople, the exposition of the mystery of the Incarnation, he only un- 
dertook to state "what the Catholic Church universally believes and 
teaches," as he declared in his letter to the emperor Theodosius.* The 
Pope receives and venerates the doctrinal definitions made in General 
Councils, even as he venerates the four Gospels ;f and he claims no power 
to take from the original deposit of revelation, or to add to it, or to re- 
move the limits which the fathers have placed. It is his duty to watch 
over the entire kingdom of Christ, from the high tower on which he is 
placed as sentinel, and to sound the alarm when the enemy approaches. 
Heresy, in every shape and form, instinctively hates him, since, as Bos- 
suet remarks, he always strikes the first or final blow at every innovation. 
Before the middle of the second century, Valentine, Cerdon, and Marcion 
came from the East to Rome, and endeavored to spread there, in public 
and in private, their heresies, which were levelled at the very foundations 
of Christianity. The integrity of the Roman faith suffered nothing from 
their attempts; so that Cerdon, despairing of success, dissembled his er- 
rors, professed repentance, and underwent public humiliation in the 
Church, in order to obtain her communion : but his hypocrisy being laid 
open, he was again forced to flee from the assembly of the faithful. J The 
heresies of Marcion, and his flagitious conduct, prevented his being re- 
stored to communion. Montanism also, as we have seen, was effectually 
opposed by the Bishop of Rome. Sectaries knew him to be the authorized 
and supreme teacher of the Church, and the faithful revered him as the 
guardian of revelation against every assailant. 

g 2.— CHIEF MYSTERIES. 

The divinity of Christ was triumphantly maintained in all ages, by the 
successors of Peter, against the subtle errors by which it was from time to 
time impugned. At the close of the second century, Theodotus, a currier 
of Byzantium, during the rage of persecution, had the weakness to deny 
Christ ; and subsequently, as if to extenuate his crime, he added heresy 



* Ep. xxix. f St. Gregory M. Ep. xxv. alias xxiv. ad Joan. Cp. 

J Irenaeus, 1. iii. c. iv. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



125 



to apostasy, alleging that Christ was but man. The zeal of Pope Victor 
led him to cut off the heresiarch from the communion of the church.* 
Zephyrinus, who succeeded him, and who was an equally strenuous de- 
fender of the faith, admitted to communion Artemon, a bishop of the sect, 
after a public abjuration of the profane error. " Clothed with sackcloth, 
with ashes sprinkled on his head, and with tears in his eyes, he cast him- 
self at the feet of Bishop Zephyrinus — and with difficulty was received to 
communion."')" 

Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, fell under suspicion of entertaining 
erroneous opinions in regard to the same mystery, so that, as St. Athanasius 
informs us, some of his brethren went to Rome, and accused him before 
his namesake, the bishop of that city.J The accused prelate, far from 
denying the competency of the tribunal, sent a satisfactory exposition of 
his faith. Such was the acknowledged authority of the Roman Bishop in 
the middle of the third century. In a Roman synod held on this occasion, 
the orthodox faith was solemnly defined. 

During the violent and long struggle with Arianism in all its forms, the 
Holy See was the constant defender of the Nicene faith. To this symbol, as 
final and essential, reference was always made by the Pontiffs and their 
legates j by which means the artifices of the Arians and Semiarians were 
effectually defeated. They spoke of the 318 fathers of the Council of 
Nice, as of the host of faithful Abraham, by whom the enemies of the di- 
vinity of Christ were routed j and they adhered to their definition as made 
under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. While many bishops proved re- 
creant to their trust, and either openly abandoned the ancient faith, or 
exposed it to corruption by the profane novelty of words, the successor of 
Peter, constantly rejecting every suggestion of expediency, whereby the 
divine truth might be endangered, held to the form of sound words de- 
livered by the Nicene fathers, and acknowledged Jesus Christ to be God 
of God, light of light* true God of true God, consubstantial 
with the Father. Amid the perplexity which distressed pious minds 
on seeing Arians intruded by imperial power into many episcopal sees, it 
was consolatory to hear the successor of Peter proclaiming, without hesita- 
tion and without disguise, the divine truth which the apostle learned from 
the Father. Ursacius and Valens obtained communion from Julius, on 
renouncing the Arian heresy, embracing the communion of Athanasius, 
and promising not to be present without permission of the Pope, at any 

* Irenaeus, 1. iii. c. iv. n. 3. Euseb. L iv. c. xxviii. Theodor. 1. ii. hser. fab. 

f Ex antiqui scriptoris libro adversus Artemonis haer. apud Coustant. Epist. Rom. 
Pontif. vol. i. col. 110. 
J "Romamascenderunt, ibique eum apud Diortysium ejusdem noniinij Romanum prajsu- 
lern accusaverunt." De Sent. Dionys. Alex. p. 345. Also de Syn. Nic. p. 371. Bishop 
Bull makes mention of "the Roman synod held under their Bishop Dionysius, in the 
cause of Dionysius of Alexandria, who was accused by some of the Church of Pentapolis 
of denying the consubstantiality of the Son of God." Discourse iv. p. 189, vol. ii. Oxford 
Edit. 1816. 



126 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



Eastern synod, even if called to it by their former partisans to account for 
their return to Catholic unity. They declare to him that they were en- 
couraged by his clemency to renounce the sect; "because your Holiness, 
according to your innate goodness, has vouchsafed to pardon our error;"* 
and they submit to him a profession of faith, to satisfy him of their or- 
thodoxy. Afterward they were again cut off from the church by Damasus, 
on their relapse into heresy.f In these acts we have the clearest evidence 
that the Roman Bishop, as the highest judge and guardian of faith, exer- 
cised unequivocal authority over other bishops. 

It was alleged, and for a long time admitted without contradiction, that 
Liberius, whom Constantius drove into exile for his attachment to the true 
faith, purchased his liberty and regained his see by the sacrifice of his 
principles and conscience. His defence of orthodoxy before, as well as 
after his banishment, is unquestionable, and he is known to have rescinded, 
by the authority of the blessed Peter, the acts of the Council of Rimini. 
The want of his sanction is relied on by Damasus, in his letter to the Bi- 
shops of Illyricum, as proof of the invalidity of the decrees, since " the 
Roman Bishop, whose sentiment above all should be regarded, did not 
consent to them. "J I am not interested in denying his fall j for the weak- 
ness of a prisoner, however culpable, cannot destroy the prerogatives of 
the successor of Peter, when acting with the freedom of authority j but 
the account given by Theodoret, a Greek historian almost contemporary, 
leaves no doubt on my mind that it was a fiction of the Arians, which was 
believed on mere popular rumor, and received without examination by 
subsequent ages. St. Athanasius informs us, that the zeal of Liberius 
against Arianism excited the abettors of this heresy to make efforts to cor- 
rupt him, knowing the influence of his station and example : " If we suc- 
ceed," said they, " in gaining Liberius to our opinion, we shall soon over- 
come all."§ Constantius commissioned the eunuch Eusebius to treat with 
him, in order to induce him to condemn Athanasius; but he proved in- 
flexible : " Such is not," he replied, " the tradition which we have from 
the fathers, and which they received from the blessed and great apostle 
Peter." || Insisting on the reception of the Nicene faith, before he would 
admit any to communion, he preferred exile to the occupancy of his see, 
if the betrayal of his duty were the condition on which it depended. His 
replies to the emperor, at the audience at Milan, which display the great- 
est intrepidity, are recorded with praise by Theodoret.^ When Constan- 
tius promised that he should return to his see, provided he made peace 
with the Oriental bishops, the enemies of Athanasius, Liberius answered : 
" I have already bidden farewell to the brethren at Rome, for the laws of 
the church are dearer to me than my residence -at Rome." 



* Ep. v. apud Coustant. t. i. col. 405. 

J Ep. iii. t. i. Coustant. col. 486. 

j| Athanas. hist. Arian. ad monach. n. 37. 



f Ep. ad Afros. 

§ Ad vitam solit. agentes. 

*H L. ii. Hist. Eccl. c. xv. xvi. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



127 



That Liberius never swerved from this determination is perceived from 
Theodoret, who says : " The glorious champion of truth went therefore 
into Thrace, as was ordered." His return is ascribed by the historian to 
the entreaties of the Roman matrons, who presented themselves in a body 
to Constantius, on his visit to Rome, in 357. The emperor wished, in- 
deed, that Felix, whom he had intruded into the see, should share with 
Liberius the administration ; but the people cried out : " One God, one t 
Christ, one bishop." " After these pious and just acclamations of the 
most Christian people, the admirable Liberius returned/'* It is utterly 
improbable, that Constantius should have promised to the people to re- 
store Liberius, and yet made the execution of his promise depend on the 
fulfilment of a condition repugnant to the faith and principles of the peo- 
ple, as well as of the Pontiff ! It is unlikely that Theodoret should have 
known nothing of such terms, or knowing them, should have passed them 
over in silence, and heaped praise on Liberius ! Sulpicius Severus, a co- 
temporary writer,")" and Socrates,J ascribe his return to seditions of the 
Romans ; which is easily reconcilable with the statement of Theodoret, 
since the fear of tumult may have concurred to dispose the emperor to 
lend an ear to the supplications of the matrons. Sozomen says that " the 
Roman people ardently loved Liberius, a man in all respects illustrious, 
who bravely resisted the emperor in the cause of religion. "§ St. Atha- 
nasius says of Liberius and Osius : " They preferred to suffer every ca- 
lamity, rather than betray the truth, or our cause." || St. Jerom testifies 
that the Roman people, who were utterly opposed to the Arians, went 
forth to meet him on his return, and that he entered the city in triumph.^" 
Nevertheless, if his writings be not interpolated, Jerom believed the re- 
ports spread by the Arians, of the criminal condescension by which Li- 
berius obtained his liberty ; but his opinion can scarcely counterbalance 
the inference which the triumphant reception of the returning Pontiff war- 
rants, or the positive testimonies of Theodoret, Socrates, and Sulpitius. 
The passages in Athanasius which affirm the fall of Liberius, appear to be 
interpolations, since they do not at all harmonize with his assertion con- 
cerning the continued sufferings of the Pontiff for his cause. The frag- 
ments of Hilary, which pronounce anathema to Liberius, are evidently 
supposititious, and unworthy of the great writer to whom they have been 
ascribed.** 

Liberius, although himself free from reproach, showed lenity to the 
bishops who, in the Council of Rimini, had been beguiled by the artful 
professions of the Arians, and coerced into acquiescence. Writing to the 
bishops of Italy, he declares that the authors of the deception should be 
treated with severity j but that those who had been the victims of fraud 



* L. ii. c. xvii. f L. ii. Hist. Sacr. J L. ii. Hist. c. xxxvii. 

$ L. iv. Hist. c. xv. || Apol. ii. ^ In Chronico. 

** See Dissertazione di Giosafatte Massari sopra la favolosa caduta di Liberio xi. nella 
Raccolta di Zaccaria, t. iii. 



128 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



and violence, should be allowed to retain their sees, on making anew the 
profession of the Catholic and Apostolic faith, as declared at Nice.* 

Sozomen tells us that Eustathius of Sebaste, Silvanus of Tarsus, and 
Theophilus of Castabala, were sent as ambassadors from Lampsacus, 
Smyrna, Pamphylia, Isauria, and Lycia, where Councils had been held, to 
Liberius and the bishops of the West, to beseech them to concert measures, 
and correct whatever was amiss in the Eastern churches, " since they (the 
Western bishops) retained the true and lasting faith delivered by the apos- 
tles, and ought, above all others, to interest themselves in the concerns of 
religion."')" Liberius, in the beginning, repelled them, as the known ene- 
mies of the Nicene faith ; but on their declaring that they had abandoned 
Arianism, and subscribed the Nicene creed, he admitted them to com- 
munion. In their address they style him : " Lord brother and fellow- 
priest." In the reply written by him, in his own name, and in the name 
of the Western bishops, he proclaims the faith of Nice, and condemns with 
anathema the blasphemies of Rimini. J 

The faith and sanctity of Liberius are testified by St. Ambrose, who 
speaks of him as a man of great holiness and blessed memory : § without 
any intimation that he had ever betrayed the cause of truth. There is, 
then, the strongest reason for regarding him as the constant and faithful 
defender of the Nicene creed, which his predecessors had gloriously main- 
tained. 

The influence and authority of the Bishop of Rome in controversies of 
faith were fully recognised in the East at this period. Soon afterward 
the heresy of Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, who denied the di- 
vinity of the Holy Ghost, called for the exercise of the apostolic authority. 
" When this question was agitated," says Sozomen, " and the excitement 
daily increased, the Bishop of the city of Rome, being informed of it, wrote 
to the churches of the East, that, together with the Western bishops, they 
should confess the consubstantial Trinity, equal in honor and glory. All 
acquiesced in this ; the controversy being terminated by the judgment of 
the Roman Church, and the question appeared to be at an end."|| 

Apollinaris, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, in the decline of the fourth 
century, denied that the Divine Word had assumed a human soul. Da- 
masus, Bishop of Rome, was the first to condemn the error, as Sozomen 
testifies. Peter, the patriarch of Alexandria, driven from his see, fled to 
Rome for redress, and was present at the Council in which this heresy 
was condemned.^ The heretic and his disciple Timothy were both de- 
posed by the judgment of the Apostolic See.** The decree of faith was 
received and subscribed by Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, and by more than 
one hundred and fifty Oriental bishops, in a synod held at Antioch, in the 

* Ep. xiii. inter ep. Rom. Pont. Coustant. t. i. col. 450. f Sozomen I. vi. c. xi. 

J Ep. xv. Coustant. t. i. col. 458. $ De Virginibus, i. iii. c. i. 

|| L. vi. c. xxii. % Ibidem, vi. c. xxv. 
** Ep. Damasi, xiv. ad Orientales. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



129 



year 379, in terms most expressive of unqualified adhesion to the doctrine. 
At the end of the decree it is said : " This is the end of the epistle, or 
exposition, of the Roman synod held under Pope Damasus, and transmit- 
ted to the East, with which the whole Eastern Church, having held a 
synod at Antioch, agrees, believing the same faith ; all of whom consent- 
ing to the faith so explained, severally confirm it by their subscription/' 
The first subscription, which is that of the patriarch himself, is in these 
terms : " I, Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, agree to all that is written, be- 
lieving and thinking in like manner; and if any one think otherwise, let 
him be anathema/'* 

Even the civil authority looked up to the Roman See as a sure guide in 
all that appertained to faith. The Emperor Theodosius, about the year 
380, issued a decree to this effect : " We wish all the nations governed by 
our clemency to profess the religion which was delivered to the Romans 
by the apostle Peter, as the religion handed down by him to the present 
time declares : and which is manifestly followed by Pope Damasus, and by 
Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness ;f namely, that 
according to the apostolic institution, and evangelical doctrine, we should 
believe the one Deity of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, with equal 
majesty and venerable Trinity."! The reason why the name of the Bishop 
of Alexandria was united with that of the Pope, was not only the dignity 
of his see, but likewise his well-known orthodoxy, since he had been pre- 
sent at the Roman Council, in which the doctrine had been defined. The 
high authority of the Pontiff suffers nothing from the concurrence and 
support of his colleagues. 

While the Roman Bishop was thus regarded as the legitimate expounder 
of the faith, he scrupulously adhered to the symbol of Nice, and required 
its unqualified subscription from all who desired his communion. St. 
Basil, speaking of Eustathius, and his adherents, reproaches him with 
deviating from the Nicene faith, which he had subscribed at Rome, a copy 
of which he had brought back with him to the East : " I am surprised," 
he says, " that they do not reflect that the confession of the faith of Nice, 
which they subscribed, is preserved at Rome, and that with their own 
hands they presented to the synod of Tyana the book from Rome, which 
we still have, containing the same faith. They have forgotten their own 
harangue on that occasion, when, advancing to the middle of the assembly, 
they mourned over the mistake, into which they had been betrayed, in 
subscribing the document prepared by the fastion of Eudoxius ; where- 
fore, they thought on this plea for their error, that going to Rome, they 

MIGHT THERE RECEIVE THE FAITH OF THE FATHERS, SO as by introducing 



* Ep. iv. apud Coustant. t. 1. col. 500. Vide supra, p. 105. 

f Dr. Jarvis strangely mistakes him for another Peter, who had suffered martyrdom 
eighty years before ! Reply to Dr. Milner, p. 189. 

J L. i. Cod. de Fide Catholica. Vide et Sozomen, 1. vii. Hist. Eccl. c. ir. 

9 



130 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



a better formulary, to repair the evil which they had caused to the 
churches by their previous assent to error."* Rome, then, was acknow- 
ledged to be the incorrupt guardian of the faith of the fathers, so that 
those who drank of her pure fountain, were qualified for spreading revealed 
truth in its integrity, throughout those regions in which error had before 
prevailed. The Roman Bishop, acting as the superior of the Eastern bi- 
shops, who applied to him for the privileges of communion, insisted that 
they should give unequivocal evidence of orthodoxy, by subscribing the 
Nieene creed j and he caused the document to be recorded, that it might 
serve to confound them, in case they should ever relapse into the errors 
which they had abjured. 

The authority of the Apostolic See was constantly invoked in all the 
controversies which, in the fourth and fifth centuries, agitated the East, 
about the great mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. It was mani- 
fested in the case of Vitalis, a priest of Antioch, who, having fallen under 
suspicion, repaired to Rome, and by using Catholic language, succeeded in 
gaining the approbation of Damasus, by whom, however, he was remanded 
with letters referring his case to the discretion of his bishop. Subse- 
quently, toward the close of the year 378, in consequence of doubts raised 
concerning his sincerity, a Roman synod was held, from which a decree 
of faith issued, which Damasus sent to Paulinus, Bishop of Antioch, re- 
quiring Vitalis and his adherents to subscribe it, if they wished to enjoy 
Catholic communion. -f 

These are most solemn evidences that the Bishop of Rome was consi- 
dered throughout the Eastern churches as well as in the West, as the chief 
guardian and expounder of the faith. From all parts recourse was had to 
him : every novel error was denounced to him : priest and prelate were 
alike subject to his judgment. He propounded the mysteries of faith in 
all their plenitude, declaring anathema to the gainsayers, and requiring 
assent to his doctrinal definitions as a necessary condition for enjoying ec- 
clesiastical communion. The Eastern patriarch, with his whole synod of 
bishops, received the pontifical decree with reverence, subscribed it with- 
out reserve, and gloried in harmonizing in faith with the successor of 
Peter. 

The mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine Word, which infinitely 
transcends the sublimest conceptions of the human mind, was from the 
beginning an occasion of scandal to such as did not absolutely and un- 
reservedly adhere to the simplicity of revelation. The apostle St. John 
declares, that " the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; J and St. 
Paul says, that " being in the form of God, he thought it no robbery 
Himself to be equal to Grod ; but debased Himself, taking the form of a 
servant, being made to the likeness of men, and in shape found as a man."§ 



* Ep. ccxliv. Patrophilo. 
% John i. 14. 



f Ep. v. Constant col. 507. 
\ PhiL ii. 6. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



131 



The Church has always believed that the Divine Person of the Word as- 
sumed huniau nature in the womb of the Virgin, so that the same Person 
is at once true God and true man. Nestorius ventured to sound the depth 
of this mystery, and listening to the whisperings of reason, fancied that 
the human nature of Christ had a distinct subsistence, or personality, and 
was only morally united with the Divine Nature and Person, which, he 
said, dwelt in it, as in a temple. His pride revolted at the thought of at- 
tributing to God, even in an assumed nature, birth, sufferings, and death, 
such as Catholics were wont to ascribe to the Divine Word in human flesh. 
This error, which impugned the Incarnation itself, and destroyed the in- 
finite value of the atonement, in Constantinople, where it was first broached, 
met with vehement opposition on the part of the laity, as well as of the 
clergy; and the report of the scandal having reached Alexandria, St. 
Cyril, its illustrious patriarch, wrote with learning and zeal against the 
profane novelty. Feeling entire confidence that he was maintaining the 
truth originally delivered, he did not hesitate to hurl anathema against 
the various forms of this recent error j yet knowing his own place in the 
Church of God, and the respect which he owed to superior authority, he 
sent his writings on this subject to Celestine, observing that he had not 
openly withdrawn from the communion of Nestorius, awaiting the instruc- 
tions of the Pontiff, which he begged might be communicated to all the 
Eastern bishops : " We do not withdraw from his communion openly, un- 
til we communicate the facts to your Holiness. Wherefore vouchsafe to 
declare to us your judgment, and whether we should at all hold communion 
with him, or openly forbid any one to communicate with him, while he 
holds and teaches such sentiments. It behoveth the judgment of your 
Holiness to be manifested by letter to the bishops most reverend and most 
beloved of God, throughout Macedonia, and to all the bishops of the 
East."* In the Roman Council, held in the year 430, St. Celestine 
quoted Ambrose, Hilary, and Damasus, as harmonizing with Cyril in their 
expositions of the mystery, and showed that the error of Nestorius had 
been condemned by anticipation, by his predecessor Damasus, in the de- 
cree which he had sent to Paulinus of Antioch.-j" In his letter to Cyril, 
he declares that the putrid member must be cut off, and that Nestorius must 
not hope to enjoy his communion, if he persevere in his opposition to the 
apostolic doctrine. J 

To Nestorius himself, Celestine addressed a solemn letter, threatening 
him with excommunication, unless he speedily retracted his error : " Know 
then/' he wrote, "that this is our decree, that unless you preach concern- 
ing Christ our God what the Church of Rome, and of Alexandria, and the 
whole Catholic Church holds, and what the holy Church of the great city 



* Ep. Cyril, viii. ad Caelest. t. i. col. 1094, Coustant. 
f Arnobius, 1. ii.de conflictu cum Serap. 
X Ep. xi. t. i. col. 1106, Coustant. 



132 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



of Constantinople has steadfastly maintained until your time ; and unless, 
by an explicit confession in writing, you condemn this perfidious novelty, 
which attempts to separate what the holy Scripture unites, you are cast 
forth from the communion of the entire Catholic Church." At the same 
time he wrote to Cyril, directing him to act as his vicar, and use the au- 
thority of the Apostolic See, together with his own, and charged him most 
strictly to execute the sentence of excommunication, if Nestorius should 
not retract within the time specified. He also informed John of Antioch, 
Juvenal of Jerusalem, Rufus of Thessalonica, and Flavian of Philippi, of 
the measures adopted against the new heresy. " We have separated from 
our communion the Bishop Nestorius, and all who follow him in his 
preaching, until he shall condemn, by a written profession of faith, the 
perverse error which he has broached, and shall declare that he holds the 
faith which, conformably to the apostolic doctrine, the Roman and Alex- 
andrian and Catholic universal* Church holds, and venerates, and preaches, 
concerning the birth from the Virgin, that is, concerning the salvation of 
the human race." " Know that this sentence has been passed by us — 
rather by Christ our Glod — concerning the said Nestorius, that, within ten 
days from the day on which he shall be notified hereof, he must condemn 
in writing his sacrilegious preaching concerning the nativity of Christ, and 
profess that he follows the faith of the Roman and Alexandrian and Uni- 
versal Church, or, being removed from the college of bishops, understand 
that his own pernicious error has caused his ruin."f 

Whoever wishes to comprehend fully what degree of authority in mat- 
ters of faith the Roman Church claimed and exercised in the early part of 
the fifth century, needs only peruse these documents, and consider the 
action of the Council of Ephesus. When the letter of Celestine was read 
in that venerable assembly of two hundred bishops from various parts, ex- 
clamations burst forth on all sides : " This a just judgment — to Celestine, 
the guardian of the faith — to Celestine, who harmonizes with the synod — 
to Celestine, the whole synod returns thanks. There is one Celestine — 
one Cyril — the faith of the synod is one — the faith of the world is one." 
No greater tribute could be paid to the Apostolic See. The fathers were 
eager to induce Nestorius to abjure his error, embrace the pontifical de- 
finition, and thus escape censure : but the heresiarch, relying on the sup- 
port of John of Antioch, and other Eastern bishops, who were personally 
attached to him, refused to obey the summons for trial. They accordingly 
proceeded, although with reluctance, to the fearful duty enjoined on them 
to cut him off from communion, " constrained so to do," say they, " by 
the canons and by the letter of our most holy father and fellow-minister, 
Celestine, Bishop of the Church of Rome."J All this took place before 



* The latter term is used as explanatory of the former, 
f Ep. xii. apud Coustant. t. i. col. 1111. 
J Hard. ool. cone. t. i. p. 1462. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



133 



the arrival of the legates, whom the Pope had despatched to preside in 
the Council with Cyril, his legate extraordinary. When they appeared, 
Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, inquired of them whether they had read 
over the act of deposition. Philip, the priest, one of the legates, replied 
that they had, and that they felt satisfied that all had been done in strict 
accordance with the canons j yet he requested that the acts should be read 
anew in the Council, that, in compliance with the orders received from 
Celestine, they might confirm what had been decreed !* The request was 
granted without difficulty : and the decrees having been read, the legate 
thus began the confirmatory sentence : " It is not doubted by any one, but 
rather it was well known in all ages, that the holy and most blessed Peter, 
the princej" and head of the apostles, the pillar of faith, and the foundation 
of the Catholic Church, received from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour 
and Redeemer of mankind, the keys of the kingdom : and power to bind 
and loose sins was given to him, who, down to the present time and for 
ever, lives and judges in his successors. His successor, then, in regu- 
lar order, the occupant of his place, our holy and most blessed Pope, the 
Bishop Celestine, has sent us to this holy synod to supply his presence." 
The legate proceeds to state the obstinacy of Xestorius, who suffered the 
time prescribed by the Apostolic See to elapse, without retracting his er- 
ror ; and then, ratifying the act of the Council, he declares that the sen- 
tence passed against him, by the consent of the bishops of the East and of 
the West, is firm, and that he is cut off from the communion of the 
Catholic Church. The other two legates spoke to the same effect, after 
whom Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, proposed that the proceedings 
of both sessions should be presented to the legates for subscription. Ar- 
cadius, one of them, observed that the proceedings of the holy synod were 
such that they could not but confirm them. The synod replied, that as 
the legates had spoken in a manner becoming them, it now remained for 
them to fulfil their promise, and subscribe the acts, which they accordingly 
did. Thus in all things was seen, as Philip the legate observed, the union 
of the holy members with their holy head, " for you," he said, addressing 
the fathers, " are not ignorant that the blessed apostle Peter is the 

HEAD OF ALL FAITH, OR EVEN OF THE APOSTLES. "J 

No more solemn and splendid testimony could be given of the general 
belief at that period of the divine institution of the primacy. The bishops 
who composed this venerable assembly, with the exception of the Roman 
legates, were oriental or African : yet they heard, without a murmur, the 
strong assertions of the legates concerning the prerogatives of Peter and 
his successors ; they submitted their acts to them for confirmation — and 

* °0-(j>; )}udg oKoXuifisavrts rip r5-w -ov ayiwraTOv Hcnra. Kc\t~hvv — Svvrj^upzv ra xeKpifieva 
0£fiauoaat. 

f 'Efo.no,-.— Actione 3, Cone. Eph. p. 1476 and 1477. Tom. i. Hard. Col. 
t 'H KefaXri 0X17? rrig tt'ktt£oj$ ?; teal tu)v cnroToXoji'. — Act. 2, col. 1472, torn. ii. Edit. ii. Head 
of all who profess the faith, and guide in all matters of faith. 



134 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



they declared themselves constrained to execute the sentence of Celestine 
against Nestorius. 

Xystus III., successor of Celestine, says that what his predecessor had 
written on faith was sufficient, but that the Apostolic See is not remiss in 
urging it, since the solicitude of all the churches presses on it.* On the 
submission of John of Antioch, who, from personal attachment and jea- 
lousy, had for a time sustained Nestorius, Xystus wrote to him : " You 
have experienced by the issue of the present affair what it is to be of one 
mind with us. The blessed apostle Peter delivers in his successors what 
he learned. Who will choose to separate himself from his doctrine, whom 
the Master Himself taught first among the apostles ?"■)* 

It was the mental malady of those early ages, to endeavor to scan the 
unfathomable mystery of the Incarnation. Scarcely had the destructive 
heresy of Nestorius been exploded, when the monk Eutyches, in shunning 
it, plunged into another gulf not less dangerous. Nestorius had divided 
Christ from the Word, by ascribing a human personality to the human 
nature : Eutyches confounded the divinity with the humanity, by affirming 
that there was but one nature, as well as person, after the union. It is 
not easy to determine the precise character of his error \ whether he sup- 
posed the Divine nature to be merged in the nature of man, which is so 
plainly repugnant to the glorious and unchangeable attributes of Deity as 
to be scarcely imaginable : or whether he thought that the human nature 
was swallowed up in the Divine, and transformed, and deified : or whether 
he fancied a composition of both natures, from which a distinct nature 
resulted. The error was most probably conceived in a confused and in- 
consistent manner; but Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople, perceiving 
clearly that revealed truth was assailed, did not hesitate to cut off from the 
communion of the Church the author of the pernicious novelty. Eutyches 
had no just ground of appeal from the sentence. However, he determined 
on interesting the Roman Bishop in his behalf, and addressed Leo, as if 
he had lodged an appeal in form, beseeching him to grant him relief from 
the injustice of his immediate ecclesiastical superior. He likewise solicited 
the support of St. Peter Chrysologus, Bishop of Bavenna, from whom 
he received this significant reply : " We exhort you, most honored brother, 
to attend obediently in all things to whatever shall be written to you by 
the most blessed Pope of the city of Borne, since blessed Peter, who lives 
and presides in his own chair, imparts the truth of faith to those who seek 
it : for we, through zeal for peace and faith, cannot take cognizance of a 
cause which regards faith, without the consent of the Bishop of Borne. "J 
Flavian, addressing the Pope, styles him : " Most Holy Father," and as- 
sures him that Eutyches had lodged no appeal, although with a view to 
defeat justice, he declared he had done so. He solicits his approbation of 



* Ep. 1. t. 1. col. 1235. f Ep. vi. ib. col. 1260. 

J Ep. xxv. Petri Chrysologi inter S. Leo. ep. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



135 



the canonical deposition of Eutyches, and states that his sentence will 
crush the heresy, and supersede the necessity of a general Council, which 
could not be convened without great commotion in the Christian world.* 
Leo finally sent to Flavian a sublime exposition of the Catholic faith, in 
which he confirmed the condemnation already pronounced against Eutyches, 
and despatched, at the same time, as his legates, a bishop, priest, and dea- 
con, with a notary, to execute the sentence, f and hold his place in the 
Council convened by Theodosius the younger, emperor of the East, J who 
had solicited the authority of the Apostolic See to give effect to his pious 
desires for the peace of the Church. § 

The proceedings of the second Council convened at Ephesus being ir- 
regular, through the violence of Dioscorus of Alexandria, the legates of 
the Pope " constantly protested in the synod that the Apostolic See would 
by no means receive the decision ;"|| and declared that " they would not 
on any account deviate from the clear and explicit statement of the faith 
which they had brought with them to the synod, from the throne of the 
most blessed apostle Peter."^[ The Pope, with all the Western Council 
of Bishops, reprobated the acts of this conventicle,** and exhorted the 
emperor to withdraw his favor from the heretical faction, for which pur- 
pose he also implored the empress Pulcheria to use her influence, and to 
regard herself as if delegated by St. Peter himself. To the clergy and 
people of Constantinople he addressed strenuous exhortations to cling to 
the orthodox faith, and consoled Flavian in his sufferings. To the priests 
and monastic superiors, he gave instructions to avoid the heresy of Eu- 
tyches, and hold the communion of Flavian. Valentinian, the emperor 
of the West, on coming to Rome, and visiting the basilic of St. Peter, 
being witness of the deep affliction caused by the proceedings at Ephesus, 
addressed a letter to Theodosius, at the request of Leo, and a synod of 
bishops, exhorting him to preserve the ancient faith unchanged, and to 
show the becoming veneration for the Apostolic See : " We ought," he 
says, " with becoming devotion to defend the faith handed down by our 
ancestors, and preserve undiminished in our days the measure of proper 
veneration for the blessed apostle Peter, so that the most blessed Bishop 
of the city of the Romans, to whom antiquity gave a priesthood above all, 
may have scope and opportunity to judge about faith and priests. "ff 
This was said to induce Theodosius to summon a Council to be held in 
Italy, where Leo, with the bishops, might pronounce judgment according 
to the truth of faith, as Valentinian proceeds to state. Galla Placidia, the 
mother of Theodosius, at the earnest request of the Pontiff, wrote to her 
son, imploring him to "preserve the faith of the Catholic religion in its 



* Ep. xxvi. inter Leonis ep. f Ep. xxviii. 

J Ep. xxix. $ Ep. xxxiii. ad Eph. Syn. secundum. 

|| Ep. xliv. ad Theodosium. ^ Ep. xlv. 

** Ep. Hilarii diaconi ad Pulcheriam, inter S. Leo. ep. 
■\f Ep. lv. inter Leonis ep. 



136 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



integrity, that, according to the form and definition of the Apostolic See, 
which we likewise venerate as presiding, Flavian continuing in his priestly 
station, might be sent over for trial in the synod of the Apostolic See, in 
which that chief, who was made worthy to receive the keys of heaven, has 
manifestly established the sovereign pontificate."* She wrote also to 
Pulcheria to urge her interposition, that the proceedings at Ephesus might 
be set aside, and the matter referred to the Apostolic See, " in which the 
most blessed apostle Peter, who received the keys of heaven, established 
the high priesthood. A Council was convened at Chalcedon, by Mar- 
cian, successor of Theodosius, at the earnest solicitation of Leo ; and the 
letter of the Pontiff, in which the mystery was propounded, was received 
with acclamation, as the genuine declaration of the ancient faith. On the 
reading of it, all cried out : " This is the faith of the fathers — this is the 
faith of the apostles. All of us have this belief — the orthodox believe 
this. Anathema to him'who does not believe this. Peter has spoken 
by Leo." J In their letter to the Pope, they declare that " he is appointed 
for all, the interpreter of the voice of Peter the apostle." 

Thus did the successors of Peter maintain the faith which he professed 
under divine inspiration, when he said : " Thou art Christ, the Son of the 
living God." The consubstantiality of the Son, which is implied in these 
words, and which was defended by the Nicene fathers against the subtle- 
ties of Arius, and his followers, was proclaimed by Sylvester, Julius, Li- 
berius, and the other occupants of that see, conformably to the faith ori- 
ginally delivered. The identity of the Person, who was at once the man 
Christ, and the Son of God, was declared by Celestine, against the impiety 
of Nestorius. To Leo belongs the glory of exploding the contrary error 
of Eutyches, who, confounding the natures, derogated from the unchange- 
able majesty of the Deity; while faith recognises the reality and distinc- 
tion of the divine and human natures, and acknowledges in each its special 
properties. To the Holy Spirit in the adorable unity of the Godhead, with 
the Father and the Son, Damasus and his synod, and with them the Coun- 
cil of Constantinople, and the whole episcopal college, rendered supreme 
homage. The mysteries, then, of the Trinity, Incarnation, and Redemp- 
tion, which the vast majority even of the sects hold to be fundamental, 
were propounded and maintained chiefly by the agency and authority of 
the Roman Pontiffs, as even Mr. Palmer acknowledges. 

"We find," he says, "that the Roman Church was zealous to maintain 
the true faith from the earliest period, condemning and expelling the 
Gnostics, Artemonites, &c. ; and, during the Arian mania, it was the bul- 
wark of the Catholic faith. "§ 

In connection with these mysteries, the honor of the Mother of our Lord 



* Ep. lvi. rr)v tx'iOKOmiv rrj; dpx^poavvris. 
| Ep. lviii. 

J Act. ii. t. ii. coll. Hard. col. 505. 

§ Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vi. ch. iii. p. 472. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



137 



was vindicated. Jovinian, the enemy of holy virginity and of the Virgin 
Mother, was condemned, as St. Jerom testifies, by the authority of the Ro- 
man Church •* and St. Augustin says that " the holy church which is 
there, (at Rome,) most faithfully and strenuously opposed this monster," 
(the heresy. )\ The apostolic decree, by which the heresiarch and his abet- 
tors were "by the divine sentence, and by the judgment of the Roman 
synod," excluded from the church, was sent to the bishops, in the confi- 
dence that they would receive it with reverence. St. Ambrose and his 
colleagues addressed Damasus in reply, and alleged among other things, 
the authority of the symbol of the apostles in support of the doctrines de- 
fined, proving from it that Mary brought forth her Divine Son without 
detriment to her virginity : " Let them/' he cried, " believe the symbol 
of the apostles, which the Roman Church always guards and preserves in- 
violate. "J The prelates assure Siricius that they also condemn the here- 
tics, conformably to his judgment. 

The perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mother was defended by the same 
illustrious Pontiff; and the contrary error was rejected with horror, in his 
letter to Anysius, his Vicar in Illyricum, and to the bishops of that pro- 
vince^ Her high dignity as Mother of God was vindicated with im- 
mense applause in the Council of Ephesus, when the error of Nestorius 
was condemned by the authority of Celestine. " This term," says Dr. Nevin, 
" for the ancient church, was the very touchstone of orthodoxy over against 
Nestorianism, just as much as the term consubstantial was so also, when 
applied to the doctrine of the Saviour's true and proper divinity, over 
against the heresy of Arius. No man whose tongue falters in pronouncing 
Mary Mother of God, can be orthodox at heart on the article of Christ's 
Person." || 

I 3.— GRACE. 

The highest authority was always ascribed to doctrinal decisions of the 
Pope by the bishops in every part of the world, who either besought him 
to declare the faith, or submitted for his confirmation the definitions which 
they themselves had framed against heresies infesting their provinces. 

The bishops of Africa had recourse to the Holy See to obtain the con- 
firmation of their decrees against the subtle heresy of Pelagius and Celes- 
tius. A numerous Council was held at Carthage in the year 416, the 
proceedings of which were communicated by a synod ical letter, addressed 
to " the most blessed and most honorable lord, the holy brother Pope In- 
nocent." " Lord brother," say the fathers, " we have thought it necessary 

* Lib. contra Vigilantium initio, 
f L. ii. Retract, c. xii. 

J Ep. viii. Ambrosii, apud Coustant, t. i. col. 671. 

$ Ep. ix. col. 681, t. i. Coustant. 

|| Dr. Berg's Last Words. M. R. May, 1852. 



138 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



to communicate this measure to jour Holiness, that the authority of the 
Apostolic See may be added to our humble decrees, in order to preserve 
many in the way of salvation, and lead back some from perverse error. 
The error and impiety, which have many abettors scattered abroad every- 
where, should be anathematized even by the authority of the Apostolic- 
See. For let your Holiness, compassionating us with pastoral tenderness, 
consider how pestiferous and destructive to the sheep of Christ is the 
consequence of their sacrilegious disputations, namely, that we should not 
pray that we may not enter into temptation, which the Lord both admo- 
nished His disciples to do, and specified in the prayer which He taught 
us : or that our faith may not fail, as He Himself testified that He prayed 
for Peter the apostle." . . . " We entertain no doubt that your Holiness, 
on examining the synodical proceedings, which are said to have taken place 
in the East, in the same cause, will pass such judgment, as to give us all 
cause for rejoicing in tlrl mercy of the Lord. Pray for us, most blessed 
lord Pope."* 

Another Council held at Milevis in the same year, in which St. Augus- 
tin bore a conspicuous part, addressed Innocent to the same effect : " We 
think that, through the mercy of the Lord our God, who vouchsafes both 
to direct your counsels and hear your prayers, those who entertain such 
perverse and pernicious opinions, will readily assent to the au- 
thority of your Holiness, derived erom the authority of the 
Divine Scriptures, so that we may have occasion rather of joy at their 
correction, than of sorrow at their ruin."f Five of the African bishops, 
among whom was Augustin, wrote a special letter to Innocent, to urge the 
adoption of measures calculated to defeat the wiles of the Pelagians. 
"Pelagius," they say, " should be called by your Holiness to Rome, and 
closely questioned as to the nature of the grace which he acknowledges, 
if, indeed, he acknowledge that men are aided to avoid sin, and live justly : 
or this is to be treated of with him by letter."! The Pontiff recognised 
in the reference made to his authority, nothing more than faithful ad- 
herence to the examples of antiquity, and due respect for the rights of the 
chair of Peter. His decree, directed to the prelates of Carthage, begins 
in these words: "In investio-atinor those things, which it is meet should 
be treated of with all care by priests, and especially by a true, and just, 
and Catholic Council, following the examples of ancient tradition, and 
mindful of ecclesiastical discipline, you have properly maintained the vigor 
of our religion, not less now in consulting us, than before when you pro- 
nounced judgment; since you determined that your judgment should be 
referred to us. as you know what is due to the Apostolic See, because all 
of us placed in this station desire to follow the apostle himself, from 
whom the episcopacy and the whole authority of this order 



* Apud Coustant, t. i. col. 867. f Ep. 176, dim. 92, p. 620. 

j Ep. xsviii. Coustant, col. S7S. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



139 



proceeded : following whom, we know how to condemn what is evil, and 
to approve what is praiseworthy. Observing, with priestly fidelity, the 
institutions of the fathers,* you do not allow them to be trodden under 
foot ; for they decreed, not by human impulse, but by divine direction, 
that whatsoever was done in provinces, however distant and remote, should 
not be deemed terminated until it had come to the knowledge of this see \ 
that the judgment, which might be found just, might be confirmed with 
its whole authority, and the other churches (as waters issuing from the 
fountain, and flowing through the different parts of the whole world, pure 
streams from an unpolluted source) might thence derive what they might 
prescribe. ; 'f His letter to the prelates of Malevis is also couched in the 
language of one having authority : " Among the various cares of the Ro- 
man Church and occupations of the Apostolic See, in managing with faith- 
ful and healing care the affairs of different persons, on which it is con- 
sulted, Julius, our brother and fellow-bishop, unexpectedly delivered to 
me your letters, which, through earnest zeal for the faith, you sent from 
the Council of Alilevis." After some other remarks he proceeds : "Ye 
do, therefore, diligently and becomingly consult the secrets of the apostolic 
honor, (that honor, I mean, on which, besides those things that are with- 
out, the care of all the churches awaits.) as to what judgment is to be 
passed on doubtful matters, following, in sooth, the direction of the ancient 
rule, which you know, as well as I, has ever been observed in the whole 
world. But this I pass by, for I am sure your prudence is aware of it : 
for how could you by your actions have confirmed this, save as knowing 
that throughout all provinces answers are ever emanating to inquirers as 
from the apostolic fountain ? Especially, so often as matter of faith, is 
under inquiry, I conceive that all our brethren and fellow-bishops ought 
not to refer, save to Peter, that is, the source of their own name and 
honor, just as your affection hath now referred, for what may benefit all 
churches in common, throughout the whole world. "t These documents 
were not considered to betray any undue assumption, by Augustin or his 
colleagues; who, on the contrary, rejoiced that " the pestilence had been 
condemned by the most manifest judgment of the Apostolic See :"§ and 
maintained that further examination was unnecessary. A few months 
after the confirmation of the African Councils had reached Africa, ad- 
dressing his flock, he observed : " Already have the decrees of two Coun- 
cils on this matter been sent to the Apostolic See : the rescripts from 
thence have reached us : the cause is decided : would to heaven the error 
were abandoned !"|| Elsewhere he writes : "'The authority of Catholic 
Councils and of the Apostolic See has most justly condemned the recent 



* Of Sardica. f Ep. 181. 

I Inter opera Aug. torn. ii. 639 B. § Ep. 191, olim. 104, p. 709, torn ii. 

jj Serm. 131, de verbis Apost. c. 10, col. 615, torn. y. " Causa finita est, utinam liniatur 
error 3" 



140 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



Pelagian heretics. "* " All doubt/' he says, " was removed by the rescript 
of Innocent. "f 

Zosimus having received with favor the declaration of Celestius, and 
written to the African bishops in his behalf, was thought by them to have 
implicitly believed the statements of this subtle heresiarch : on learning 
which, he wrote to assure them that he had not at all receded from the 
decrees of his predecessor. " The tradition of the fathers/' says he, " has 
ascribed so great authority to the Apostolic See, that no one dares call its 
judgment in question, and it has been so maintained by the canons and 
rules ; and ecclesiastical discipline, which is still regulated by its laws, 
pays the due reverence to the name of Peter, from whom itself likewise is 
derived ; for canonical antiquity, by common consent, ascribed to this 
apostle such power, in virtue of the very promise of Christ our God, that 
he should loose bonds and bind what was loose ; and equal power was re- 
cognised in those who had, by his favor, inherited his see ; for he himself 
has charge of all the churches, but especially of this one in which he sat : 
nor does he suffer any privilege to fail, or any decree to vacillate by any 
breath of air, having established in his name a firm foundation, which 
cannot be shaken by any effort, and which no man rashly assails without 
danger to himself. Wherefore, as Peter is head of so great authority, and 
as he has confirmed the subsequent acts of all our predecessors, so tha,t all 
laws and regulations, both human and divine, support the Roman Church, 
whose place we hold, as you are not ignorant, but rather know well, as 
priests ought to know, yet, although we have so great authority that no 
one can rescind our decree, we adopted no measure which we did not at 
the same time communicate to you by letter." J 

In the year 418, Zosimus published, against the Pelagian errors, a de- 
cree called Tractoria, directed " to all bishops universally. "§ It was sent 
to the churches of Africa, in which the errors had been condemned, to the 
Eastern churches, to the diocese of Egypt, to Constantinople, Thessalonica, 
and Jerusalem. St. Augustin, quoting a passage from it concerning 
sin, observes : " In these words of the Apostolic See the Catholic faith, so 
ancient and well founded, is so certain and clear, that a Christian cannot 
entertain a doubt of it without impiety." || 

St. Prosper says : "A council of two hundred and fourteen bishops 
being held at Carthage, the synodical decrees were sent to Pope Zosimus, 
which being approved of, the Pelagian heresy was condemned throughout 
the whole world. "^f Elsewhere he says, that "the judgments of the 
Eastern bishops, and the authority of the Apostolic See, and the vigilance 



* L. ii. de anima et ejus origine, c. xii. n. 17. 

f L. ii. ad Bonifac. contra 2 ep. Pelag. c. iii. 

t Ep. xii. col. 974, Coustant, t. i. 

$ Vide Aug. ad Optat. ep. cxc. n. 22. 

|| Ep. cxc. n. 23. 1 In Chronico. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



141 



of the African Councils, detected the artifices of the Pelagians."* Speak- 
ing of those who asserted that St. Augustin had not correctly defended the 
Catholic doctrine, he dwells " on the greatness of the injury, which, in 
the person of this one doctor, they inflict on all, and especially on the 
Pontiffs of the Apostolic See."f He repels the assertion as absurd : 
" According to your censure, the blessed Pope Innocent erred, a man most 
worthy of the See of Peter. The two hundred and fourteen bishops erred, 
who, in the letter which they prefixed to their decrees, thus addressed 
blessed Zosimus, the prelate of the Apostolic See : ' We have determined 
that the sentence passed against Pelagius and Celestius by the venerable 
bishop, Innocent, from the See of the most blessed apostle Peter, shall con- 
tinue in force, until they most unreservedly confess that we are aided in 
each act by the grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord, not only to 
know but to perform justice, so that without it we can have, think, say, 
or do nothing of true and sincere piety.' The holy See of Peter erred, 
which by the mouth of blessed Zosimus thus speaks to all the world : 
' We, nevertheless, through the inspiration of Grod — for all good is to be 
referred to its author and origin — have reported all to our brethren and 
fellow-bishops.' "J He shows that these errors, having been once pro- 
scribed by Apostolic authority, should not be discussed : ' We are not 
again to enter into a new conflict with them, (the Pelagians,} nor are 
special contests to be begun as against unknown enemies : their engines 
were broken in pieces, and they were prostrated, in the companions and 
princes of their pride, when Innocent, of blessed memory, struck the heads 
of the impious error with the Apostolic sword .... when Pope Zosimus, 
of blessed memory, added the seal of his sentence to the decrees of the 
African Council. "§ " See," he says in another place, " the rebels every 
where laid prostrate by the thunderbolt of the Apostolic decision." || He 
calls Rome " the throne of Peter,"^" " the throne of Apostolic power,"** 
the " head of the world, governing with religious empire nations which its 
arms had not subdued, ""("f* 

St. Vincent of Lerins, in his celebrated ' Commonitorium,' illustrates 
his great principle of ancient tradition, "by an instance taken from the 
x\postolic See, that all might see in meridian light — with what energy, 



* Ad Ruf. p. 164, App. ad Aug. Ed. Ven. torn. x. 

f L. contra Collatorem, p. 171. 

% Ibidem, p. 176. 

$ L. contra Collatorem, p. 195. 

|| stratosque rebelles 

Oris Apostolici fulmine ubique vide. — Prosp. in Obtrect. Aug* 
5[ Ergo Petri solium Eomam, et Carthaginis altse 

Concilium repetant. — Carm. de Ingratis. 
** Juris Apostolici solio. — lb. 
ff Secies Roma Petri, quae pastoralis honoris, 

Facta caput mundi, quidquid non possidet armis, 

Religione tenet. — lb. 



142 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



with what zeal, with what determination the blessed successors of the 
blessed apostles always maintained the integrity of the religion originally 
handed down." He then, in the strong language already quoted, men- 
tions the resistance of Pope Stephen to the practice of rebaptizing.* In 
the penultimate chapter, speaking of the letters of Julius, Bishop of Rome, 
which were read in the General Council of Ephesus, he observes : " That 
not only the head of the world, but also its sides, might give testi- 
mony for that judgment, the most blessed Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage 
and martyr, was brought forward from the south ; St. Ambrose, Bishop of 
Milan, from the north/' In the last chapter he adduces " two authorita- 
tive declarations of the Apostolic See : one, namely, of the holy Pope 
Sixtus, which venerable man," he says, " now adorns the Boman Church ; 
the other of his predecessor of blessed memory, Pope Celestine. Whoever 
opposes these Apostolic and Catholic decrees, must first insult the memory 
of holy Celestine, who decreed that novelty should cease to assail antiquity, 
and must mock the decrees of holy Sixtus, who judged that novelty should 
have no indulgence, because nothing should be added to antiquity."") - 

In terms which beautifully exhibit the unity of the Catholic faith, and 
the efficiency of the Apostolic See in preserving it, Paulinus, deacon of 
Milan, author of the Life of St. Ambrose, congratulated Zosimus on the 
measures adopted against the heresy of Celestius : "The true faith is 
never disturbed, especially in the Apostolic Church, in which perverse 
teachers are easily discovered, and properly punished, that their evil con- 
ceptions and worse productions may die in them, if they will be corrected, 
and the true faith may be imparted to them, which the apostles taught, 
and the Boman Church holds, in union with all the teachers of the Catho- 
lic faith/'J 

Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople, previously to the condemnation 
of his own error, consulted Pope Celestine, concerning Julian and others, 
accused of the Pelagian heresy, inquiring whether he should treat them as 
heretics : " We wish to be informed what opinion we should entertain of 
them, for we put them off day after day, awaiting the answer of your Holi- 
ness."! Thus the authority of the Apostolic See in determining matters 
of faith, was distinctly recognised by the Bishop of the new Borne, at 
the moment when it was about to be employed to proscribe the heresy 
into which pride betrayed himself. 

St. Prosper relates that Pope Xystus was guarded against the wiles of 
Julian, by the advice of Leo, who was then deacon ; and that the disap- 
pointment of the artful heretic, who hoped to impose on the unsuspecting 
Pontiff, filled all Catholics with joy, as if then, for the first time, the 
Apostolic sword had cut off the head of the proud heresy. || 



* Supra, p. 115. 

X Ep. viii. Constant, t. i. col. 963. 
!| L. contra collat. c. xxi. 



f Comm. p. 26, Ed. Aug. Vindelic. 
§ Ep. vii. Coustant, t. i. col. 1089. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



143 



St. Leo, understanding that the Pelagians and Celestians were in some 
places admitted to the communion of the Catholic Church, without a solemn 
abjuration of their errors, wrote to the Bishop of Aquileja, commanding 
him to convene a synod, and require of them a formal retraction : " Let 
them condemn openly and explicitly the authors of the proud error, and 
detest whatever the universal Church has found worthy of abhorrence in 
their doctrine, and declare fully, openly, and in written documents sub- 
scribed by them, that they embrace, and unreservedly approve of all 
synodical decrees directed to the extirpation of this heresy, which have 
been confirmed by the authority of the Apostolic See/'* Thus the per- 
nicious errors against divine grace, which pride invented and fostered, to 
the prejudice of the redemption which we have through Christ, were op- 
posed and extirpated, with untiring zeal, by the successors of Peter 

§ 4. — TESTIMONIES OF FATHERS. 

The most learned fathers humbly addressed the Bishops of Borne, with 
childlike dependence on their teaching. St. J erom, in affecting language, 
implored the direction of Damasus in the controversies which agitated the 
East : " Since the East tears into pieces the Lord's coat, and foxes lay 
waste the vineyard of Christ, so that among broken cisterns which hold no 
water, it is difficult to understand where is the sealed fountain and the 
enclosed garden : therefore the chair of Peter and that faith which is 
praised by the Apostle's mouth is appealed to by me, who now seek food 
for my soul where formerly I received the robe of Christ."f Writing to 
Demetriades, a Boman lady, to guard her against the wiles of heretics, he 
exhorts her to adhere to the doctrine of the actual occupant of the Apos- 
tolic chair ; at the same time bearing witness to the zeal with which a de- 
ceased Pope had exercised his authority for the maintenance of sound doc- 
trine : " When you were a child," he says, " and the Bishop Anastasius, 
of holy and blessed memory, governed the Boman Church, a dread storm 
of heretics from the Eastern parts, attempted to adulterate and destroy the 
simplicity of the faith, which was praised by the voice of the apostle. But 
a man, very rich in his poverty, and full of apostolic zeal, struck at once 
the direful head, and broke the hissing mouth of the hydra. Since I fear, 
and even have heard a report, that these poisonous plants are still in the 
ground, and bud forth anew, I think it proper charitably to warn you, to 
hold the faith of the holy Innocent, who is the successor and child of the 
Apostolic chair, and of the holy man just mentioned, and not to receive 
any strange doctrine, however prudent and wise you may appear to your- 
self."J Writing to Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, he says: "Be 
it known to you, that we hold nothing more sacred than to maintain the 



* Ep. i. ad Aquil. ep. f Damaso ep. He alludes to his baptism. 

X Ep. viii. ad Deaietriadem. 



1U 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



rights of Christ, and not to move the boundaries which the fathers have 
placed, but always to bear in mind that the Roman faith was praised by 
the mouth of the apostle, of which faith the Church of Alexandria glories 
that she partakes."* Theophilus himself exhorted certain monks to ana- 
thematize Origen and other heretics, after his own example, and that of 
" Anastasius, Bishop of the holy Roman Church, whom the entire synod 
of the Western bishops follows. "f Thus Alexandria and Antioch, as well 
as the Western patriarchate, followed the authority of the Pontiff, and 
gloried in his communion. Heretics themselves knowing the Bishop of 
Rome to be the highest judge in causes of faith, used every stratagem to 
deceive him. We have seen already the efforts of the Montanists, Pela- 
gians, and many others, to gain his confidence. Sulpicius tells us that 
Instantius, Salvian, and Priscillian, having been condemned for heresy in 
a Council of Saragossa, "set out for Rome to justify themselves before 
Damasus, who was then Bishop of that city;" but that they were not ad- 
mitted into his presence. J 

With St. Leo we must ascribe the constancy in faith of the Roman 
Bishops, not to chance or personal merit, but to the aid of Christ : " From 
whose supreme and eternal protection we also," says he, "have received 
the strength of apostolic aid, which certainly is not withdrawn from His 
own work ; and the firmness of the foundation on which the high fabric 
of the whole Church is built, suffers nothing from the mass of the temple 
which rests on it. For the solidity of the faith, which was praised in the 
prince of the apostles, is perpetual j and as that which Peter believed of 
Christ continues always, so that which Christ instituted in Peter always 
remains." The eloquent Pontiff proves this from the passage of St. Mat- 
thew, and then proceeds : " The ordinance of truth therefore continues, 
and blessed Peter, persevering in the strength of the rock imparted to 
him, does not abandon the helm of the Church at which he was placed. 
For he was thus ordained in preference to the others, that while he is 
styled a rock, while he is declared a foundation, while he is made gate- 
keeper of the kingdom of heaven, while he is constituted judge of what is 
to be bound or loosed, with a promise that his decision shall be ratified in 
heaven, we should understand, by the mysterious appellations themselves, 
the special relation which he bears to Christ." § 

The agency of the successors of Peter in maintaining the integrity of 
revelation, through a long lapse of ages, was acknowledged by the learned 
Protestant, Cassaubon : " No one," he remarks, " who is the least versed 
in ecclesiastical history, can doubt that God made use of the Holy See, 
during many ages, to preserve the doctrines of faith." || The same is true 
of all ages, so that we may at this day repeat the words of Eusebius : " It 



* Ep. lxiii. clas. 3, an. 397. 

t L - fi- 
ll Exercit xv. ad annal. Baronii. 



f Serm. ad quosdam monachos. 

$ Serm. iii. in anniversario ad Pontif. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



145 



is certain that our Saviour foretold that His doctrine should be preached 
throughout the world in testimony to all nations, and that the Church 
which was afterward to be established by His power, should be invincible 
and impregnable, and never overcome by death, but should be firm and 
immovable, as established and founded on a rock. He has, in fact, done 
what He foretold ; for already the fame of His Gospel has filled the world 
from east to west, and reached all nations, and its preaching spreads daily. 
The Church, also, receiving her appellation from Him, has taken root; 
and, being extolled to the skies by the discourses of holy men, shines with 
the light and splendor of orthodox faith; nor does she flee before her 
enemies, nor yield to the very powers of death, in consequence of the few 
words which He uttered : ' On this rock I will build My Church, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.' "* 

" There are, it is true/' writes Dr. Nevin, " predictions enough of trials, 
heresies, apostacies, and corruptions ; but the idea is never for a moment 
allowed that these should prevail in any such universal way as the (Puri- 
tan) theory before us pretends. On the contrary, the strongest assurances 
are given that this should not be the case. These stand forth most con- 
spicuously and solemnly, in those wonderful passages from the mouth of 
the blessed Saviour Himself, which form, as it were, the charter of the 
Church, and its heavenly commission to the end of time."f 

I 5.— VINDICATION OF HONORIUS. 

A dark cloud long lowered over the Holy See, on account of the con- 
demnation of Pope Honorius by the sixth General Council, held in 680. 
The fathers of this assembly on reading, among other documents, the 
answer of Honorius to Sergius, Bishop of Constantinople, rejected it with 
execration, together with the letter of Sergius, to which it was a reply, and 
another letter directed to Cyrus, then Bishop of Phasis; and added to 
their anathemas against various heretics by name, this very solemn con- 
demnation : " We have resolved also to anathematize Honorius, who was 
Pope of ancient Rome, since we find, from the letter addressed by him to 
Sergius, that conforming to his views in all things, he confirmed the im- 
pious dogmas."J They cried out : " To Honorius, the heretic, anathema." 
In defending the dogma of the primacy, I do not deem it necessary to 
prove, that no one of the Roman Bishops at any time taught heresy, or 
was personally heretical ; as I insist only on the duty of his office to guard 
the faith, and on the notorious fact that it has been generally fulfilled : but 
I owe it to truth and justice, and to the memory of a Pontiff illustrious 
for zeal, to express my conviction that the charge of heterodoxy advanced 
against him is without solid foundation. 



De prasp. Ev., 1. i., c. iii. 
% Act xiii. 



f " Early Christianity," M. R., November, 1851. 
10 



146 GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 

The letters of Honorius, which are still extant,* express the doctrine 
of the One Divine Operator, or Agent, in the two natures, which is, in 
substance, the Catholic doctrine of two operations, each nature having its 
own operation. " We should confess/' says he, "both natures in Christ, 
united in natural unity, operating in communion with each other; the di- 
vine nature doing what belongs to God, and the human nature executing 
the things of the flesh, not separately, nor confusedly ; not teaching that 
the nature of God was changed into the man, or the human nature into 
that of God, but confessing the difference of natures to be entire." At 
the artful suggestion of Sergius, Honorius ordered silence to be observed 
as to the terms of one or two operations, being content with requiring 
that Christ should be held to be one Divine Operator in the two natures. 
This injunction was serviceable to the cause of heresy, which in the mean 
time spread like a cancer. The abuse made of the good faith of the Pon- 
tiff drew down censure on his memory, as if he were the abettor and ap- 
prover of an error which he did not strongly and instantly condemn : but 
I may be permitted to observe, that men are often judged by the results 
of their actions, and that the forbearance of Honorius, and his anxiety to 
terminate the wordy contest and preserve peace, might have gained the 
praise of consummate prudence and enlightened zeal, had not the perverse 
ingenuity of the Monothelites turned the prohibition to the advantage of 
their cause. The orthodoxy of Honorius never wanted strenuous defend- 
ers. John IV., in his letter to the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, com- 
plained that Pyrrhus, Bishop of Constantinople, was abusing and pervert- 
ing the words of his predecessor. J ohn the Abbot, the secretary employed 
by Honorius, testified that the implied disclaimer of two wills in Christ, 
was intended to exclude only the corrupt will of fallen man ; and the mar- 
tyr Maximus, the declared enemy of Monothelism, vindicated the faith of 
the Pontiff, f A more solemn, though less direct vindication, is contained 
in the letter of Pope Agatho to Constantine Pogonatus, read with accla- 
mation in the sixth General Council, in which he asserts that his prede- 
cessors had never failed in the performance of the high duties of their 
office : " This is the rule of true faith, which the apostolic Church of 
Christ, this spiritual mother of your most tranquil empire, warmly held 
and defended both in prosperity and adversity; which Church, through 
the grace of Almighty God, is shown to have strayed at no time from the 
path of apostolic tradition, and to have never succumbed to the perverse 
novelties of heretics; but what, from the commencement of Christian 
faith, she learned from her founders, the princes of the apostles of Christ, 
she incorruptibly retains to the end, according to the promise of our Lord 



* John Baptist Earth oli, Bishop of Feltri, in an Apology for Honorius, maintains that 
the first letter to Sergius has been adulterated, and that the second is a forgery, of which 
nothing was known at Borne. 

f In Ep. ad Marin, presbyt. 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



147 



and Saviour Himself, which. He declared to the prince of His apostles, in 
the Gospel, saying : ' Peter, Peter, lo ! Satan hath sought to sift you as 
one sifteth wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith may not fail : 
and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren/ Let, then, your 
serene clemency consider, that the Lord and Saviour of all, whose gift 
faith is, and who promised that the faith of Peter should not fail, charged 
him to confirm his brethren ; as it is notorious to all that the apostolic 
Pontiffs, my predecessors, have always fearlessly done/'* All this seems 
expressly directed to repel any charge likely to be made against Honorius; 
and the applause which followed the reading of the letter, " Peter has 
spoken through Agatho," implies the assent of the Council to the 
statement : yet the records of the proceedings contain censures on the 
memory of Honorius, which force us to believe that the fathers there as- 
sembled considered him to have been guilty, if not of culpable connivance, 
at least of an untimely dissimulation. Without disrespect to their authority, 
they may be supposed to have been mistaken in a matter of fact, merely 
personal, namely, the spirit and intention with which the letters were 
written. 

It is not necessary to insist more particularly on this vindication of an 
individual Pontiff. I have not undertaken to prove, what, indeed, no 
Catholic divine asserts, that the Pope may not, by the artifices of heretics, 
be betrayed into measures prejudicial to the faith ; neither have I deemed 
it necessary to maintain, what I am deeply convinced of, from the special 
prayer of Christ, that God will never suffer him to propound error in a 
solemn doctrinal definition directed to the universal Church. My object 
has been to show that the Popes, as primates of the Church by divine 
right, exercised high judicial authority in determining and maintaining 
the doctrines of faith. It is not merely in the eleventh century that lan- 
guage occurs like that which was addressed by St. Bernard to Innocent 
II. : " It is right that all dangers and scandals which arise in the kingdom 
of God, especially such as regard faith, should be reported to your apostle- 
ship : for I think it proper that the wounds inflicted on faith should be 
there healed, where faith cannot fail. That is the prerogative of the 
See/'f In the fifth century, Pope Hilarius was addressed by the Bishops 
of the province of Tarragona, in language almost equally emphatic. The 
occasion of their writing was a personal or disciplinary affair, of which 
they availed themselves to express their desire to profit by the instruction 
of the Holy See : " Even were there," say they, " no necessity of eccle- 
siastical discipline, we should seek to benefit by the privilege of your See, 
since the extraordinary preaching of the most blessed Peter, who, after 
the resurrection of the Saviour, received the keys of the kingdom, shone 
forth for the illumination of all : the principality of whose Yicar, as it is 
eminent, is to be feared and loved by all. Wherefore, profoundly adoring 

* Cone. Coustant. iii. act. iii., col. 10S1, Coll. Hard. t. iii. 
f Ep. ad Inuoc. ii. 



148 



GUARDIANSHIP OF FAITH. 



in you God, whom you serve without reproach, we have recourse to the 
faith which was praised by the mouth of the apostle; and we seek a reply 
from that source, where nothing is ordained erroneously, nothing pre- 
sumptuously, but all with pontifical deliberation."* 

"We may be allowed to recapitulate in the words of Dr. Nevin : " Ex- 
amples of the actual exercise of supreme power on the part of the Popes, 
in the fourth and fifth centuries, are so frequent and numerous, that no- 
thing short of the most wilful obstinacy can pretend to treat them as of 
no account. In every great question of the time, whether rising in the 
East or in the West, all eyes show themselves ever ready to turn toward 
the cathedra Petri, as the last resort for counsel and adjudication ; all con- 
troversies, either in the way of appeal, or complaint, or for the ratification 
of decisions given in other quarters, are made to come directly or indi- 
rectly, in the end, before this tribunal, and reach their final and conclusive 
settlement only through its intervention. The Popes, in these cases, take 
it for granted themselves, that the power which they exercise belongs to 
them of right, in virtue of the prerogative of their See ; there is no ap- 
pearance whatever of effort or of usurpation, in the part they allow them- 
selves to act; it seems to fall to them as naturally as the functions of a 
magistrate or judge in any case are felt to go along with the office to which 
they belong. And the whole world apparently regards the primacy in the 
same way, as a thing of course, a matter fully settled and established in 
the constitution of the Christian church. We hear of no objection to it, 
no protest against it, as a new and daring presumption, or as a departure 
from the earlier order of Christianity. The whole nature of the case im- 
plies, as strongly as any historical conditions and relations well could, 
that this precisely, and no other order, had been handed down from a time, 
beyond which no memory of man to the contrary then reached. 



* Ep. Tarrac. ep. t. ii. cone. Hard. col. 787. 

f "Early Christianity," Mercersburg Review, Sept., 1851. 



CHAPTER XII. 



<$0lurttittjj ffliwt 

§ 1. — EXERCISE OF AUTHORITY. 

We have seen abundant evidence of the most decided exercise of the 
primacy in the maintenance of faith. The same documents prove that the 
Bishop of Rome was regarded as the governor of the universal Church, 
regulating its administration by laws, enforcing their observance, and occa- 
sionally mitigating their rigor by opportune indulgence.* But few of the 
many rescripts which emanated from the Holy See in the early ages, have 
escaped the flames kindled by the heathen persecutors, or the ravages of 
time j yet they are amply sufficient to establish the fact, that a governing 
power was at all times claimed by the Roman Bishop, as successor of St. 
Peter, by divine right, and that the claim was admitted, and its exercise 
oftentimes implored, by the bishops throughout the world. The adminis- 
tration of the Church was, nevertheless, conducted on settled principles, 
because the power was given by the Lord, not for destruction, but for edi- 
fication ; and the canons, or rules, made by the Popes, or by Councils, 
were sacredly respected, unless when the high interests of religion required 
a departure from them. " Let the rules govern us/' cried out St. Celes- 
tine; "let us not set aside the rules; let us be subject to the canons, 
whilst we observe what the canons command. "f 

The divine origin of episcopal power is loudly proclaimed by St. Cy- 
prian, whose language is strictly applicable to the Roman Pontiff, the 
representative and depositary of the plenitude of episcopal authority. In 
order to show the crime of insubordination, he adduces the well-known 
passage of Deuteronomy, wherein the decree of the High Priest is en- 
forced with the strongest penal sanction; from which, as well as from 
other testimonies, he thus concludes : " Since these and many other 
weighty examples are upon record, by which the priestly authority and 
power, through divine condescension, are established, what think you of 
those who, being enemies of the priests, and rebels against the Catholic 
Church, are not awed, either by the threat of the Lord who forewarns, or 

* The admirable adaptation of the pontifical enactments to the variety of circumstances, 
is acknowledged by Voltaire. Of Rome, he says : " Elle a su toujours temperer les loix 
selon les terns et selon les besoms." Sur la Police des Spectacles, vol. v. 

f Ep. ad ep. Illyric. t. i. Coustant, col. 1064. 



150 



GOVERNING POWER. 



by the avenging judgment that awaits them ? For from no other source 
have heresies arisen, or schisms sprung up, than from not obeying the 
priest of God, and not reflecting that there is one priest, for the 

TIME, IN THE CHURCH, AND ONE JUDGE, FOR THE TIME, IN THE PLACE 

OF Christ, to whom if all the brotherhood yielded obedience, according 
to the divine instructions, no one would attempt any thing against the col- 
lege of priests; no one, after the divine judgment, after the suffrage of 
the people, after the consent of his fellow bishops, would make himself 
judge, not of the bishop, but of God; no one would rend the Church of 
Christ by the breach of unity ; no one, through vanity and pride, would 
form a new heresy apart and without/'* It may be contended, not with- 
out plausibility, that this is said of a local bishop, namely, of Cyprian 
himself : but it is difficult to apply language so strong to each individual 
bishop, since it is certain that on the principle of unqualified obedience to 
the diocesan, the whole body of the clergy and people of Constantinople 
would have been perverted, when Macedonius, or Nestorius held that See. 
The mere episcopal character did not afford a guarantee of orthodoxy — 
the mere fact of succession did not ensure the truth of the doctrine pro- 
fessed. As Dr Nevin well observes, " It must be the office in unity with 
itself under a catholic form ; the office as representing the undivided and 
indivisible Apostolical Commission, on which, as a rock centring in Peter, 
the church was to be built to the end of tiine."f It is only in the person 
of the chief bishop, whom Divine Providence wonderfully guards and di- 
rects, that the observations of Cyprian are fully verified. His own resist- 
ance to Stephen may seem to show that he did not inculcate obedience to 
the mandates of the Roman Bishop ; yet as it arose from a supposed abuse 
of power, it is reconcilable with the advocacy of the general principle, that 
obedience should be rendered to the one priest and one judge. Besides, the 
text is painfully illustrated by the history of that opposition, in connection 
with the rise of Donatism. Had Cyprian in that instance obeyed the 
priest of God, and reflected that there is one priest, for the time, in 
the Church, and one judge, for the time, in the place of 
Christ, the scandal of dissension would have been avoided, and the Dona- 
tists would have had no pretext for using his venerable name in support 
of their error and schism. 

We have seen that Victor and Stephen acted as persons having au- 
thority over the Asiatic and African prelates. The evidences of a similar 
exercise of governing power multiply during the fourth and fifth ages, 
when, in consequence of the liberty which the Church enjoyed, there was 
a development of her power, as occasions presented themselves for its ex- 
ercise. Pope Siricius, in the year 385, replying to the consultation of 
Himerius, Bishop of Tarragona, in Spain, says : " We bear the burdens 
of all who are heavily laden, or rather the blessed apostle Peter bears 



* Ep. lix., alias liv. lv. 



f Art. Cyprian, M. R. July, 1852. 



GOVERNING POWER. 



151 



them in us, and, as we trust, in all things protects and defends us, the 
heirs of his authority." The language of this document implies a govern- 
ing power of the most marked character, by which offences against the 
divine law are punished with the highest ecclesiastical penalty, and positive 
enactments are enforced by a similar sanction. Those who re-baptize per- 
sons baptized by heretics, are subjected to excommunication. Having 
pointed to the authorities which condemn this practice, the Pontiff ob- 
serves : "You must not hereafter depart from this rule, if you do not wish 
to be separated from our body by a synodical decree." The immediate 
administration of baptism to infants and persons in danger of death, is en- 
joined under a similar penalty : " Let this rule be henceforth observed," 
he says, " by all priests who do not wish to be separated from the solidity 
of the apostolic rock, on which Christ built the Universal Church." It 
needs no commentary to show that this is the language of a superior. In- 
continent clergymen, who presume to defend their excesses by appealing 
to the Mosaic code, are threatened with final degradation: "Let them 
know that they are cast down from all ecclesiastical honor, which they 
have abused, and that they can never again touch the sacred mysteries." 
The connivance of the Spanish bishops at abuses, in the promotion of un- 
qualified men to sacred orders, is strongly reprobated, and a rule is laid 
down which they must follow : "By a general enactment, we decree what 
hereafter must be followed, and what must be shunned by all churches." 
This very remarkable document closes with a commendation of the bishop 
to whom it was addressed, for having reported and proposed the various 
points to the Roman Church, as to the head; and with an injunction to 
communicate the decree itself to all the bishops, not only of the diocese 
of Tarragona, but also of Carthage, Baetica, Lusitania, G-allecia, and 
other neighboring provinces, that none may plead ignorance, in order to 
escape the penalties of transgression : " None of the priests of the Lord 
are at liberty to plead ignorance of the decrees of the Apostolic See, or 
the venerable definitions of the canons."* Although Spain was in the 
"Western patriarchate, and the decree was not beyond the limits of patri- 
archal power, the terms show that Siricius relied on his apostolic authority 
derived from Peter. 

Similar language is observable in all the ancient pontifical decrees. 
Yitricius, Bishop of Rouen, sought to be guided by " the rule and au- 
thority of the Roman Church and with this view addressed Innocent 
L, who held the chair of Peter in the commencement of the fifth century. 
This venerable Pontiff undertook to reply, invoking "the assistance of 
the holy apostle Peter, through whom the commencement of the apostolic 
office and of the episcopate was made by Christ." He directs ecclesias- 
tical suits to be terminated in the respective provinces in which they ori- 
ginate, and forbids recourse to foreign tribunals, " without prejudice, how- 



* A pud Coustant, t. i. col. 623, et seq. 



152 



GOVERNING POWER. 



ever, to the Roman Church, to which reverence is due in all cases.'' The 
greater causes are to be submitted to the judgment and final decision of 
the Holy See, conformably to synodical decrees and established usage: 
" Let them be referred to the Apostolic See, after the episcopal judgment, 
as the synod decreed* and laudable custom requires. "f Writing to the 
bishops of Macedonia, he resented, as derogatory to the authority of the 
Holy See, that what it had decreed " as the head of the churches, should 
be considered as admitting of question. "J 

Zosimus, the successor of Innocent, spoke with the same voice of au- 
thority, and sent his orders to Gaul, Spain, Africa, and wherever the ne- 
cessities of the Church demanded his interposition. Addressing Hesy- 
chius, Bishop of Salona, who had asked for a command of the Apostolic- 
See, to authorize him to resist those who rashly sought to advance to the 
priesthood without the necessary preparation, he states that he had already 
written to this effect to Spain and Gaul, and that even Africa had not 
been a stranger to his warnings ; and he encourages this prelate to oppose 
such hasty proceedings. u You demand, " he says, ; * a precept of the 
Apostolic See in harmony with the decrees of the fathers.'' — ''Resist such 
ordinations : resist the pride and arrogance which ambitiously aspire to 
advance. You have in your favor the precepts of the fathers : you have 
also the authority of the Apostolic See." He charges Hesychius to make 
known the decrees to all the bishops of the neighboring provinces. 
"Whosoever," he adds, " disregarding the authority of the fathers and 
of the Apostolic See, shall neglect this, must know that it shall be strictly 
enforced, so that he may rest assured he shall not retain his dignity, if 
he imagine that what has been forbidden so repeatedly, can be attempted 
with impunity." § This is clearly the strongest language of authority. 
St. Augustin avows, in reference to ecclesiastical matters, that he and his 
colleagues were under the necessity of obeying the commands of the Pon- 
tiff. Writing to Optatus, he says : "Your letter, which you sent to Mau- 
ritania-C«sariensis, arrived when I was at Csesarea, whither ecclesiastical 
duty, enjoined on us by the venerable Pope Zosimus, Bishop of the Apos- 
tolic See, had led us."|| Possidius says that "the letters of the Apostolic 
See had compelled Augustin, with others of his fellow-bishops, to repair 
thither, in order to terminate other difficulties of the Church."*" 

St. Leo wrote to Turribius, Bishop of Astoria, in Spain, to direct that a 
Council should be called, and required that if any bishops were found tainted 
with the errors of Manes or Priscillian they should be at once cut off 

* According to another reading, custom only is mentioned. The Council of Sardica 
may be meant by the Synod, 
j Ibidem, coL 746. 
% Ep. xvii. col. S30. 
§ Ep. is. col. 968. 

|' Ep. cxc. alias clvi. n. 1, necessitas ecclesiastica. 
J C. sir. 



GOVERNING POWER. 



153 



from the communion of the Church. He had given a similar order to the 
Bishops of Tarragona, Carthage, Lusitania, and Gallecia.* To the Bishops 
of Mauritiania-Csesariensis, he wrote, "in consequence of the solicitude 
which," he says, " by divine institution we have for the whole 
Church. "f He elsewhere expresses the admirable economy of Divine 
Wisdom in the constitution and government of the Church : " Out of the 
whole world Peter alone is chosen, and placed over those who are called 
from all nations, and over all the apostles, and all the fathers of the 
Church : so that, although there are many priests and many pastors of the 
people of God, Peter, nevertheless, properlyj governs them all, who are 
also chiefly governed by Christ. § Great and wonderful, dearly beloved, is 
the communication of His own power, which the divine goodness vouch- 
safed to him j so that whatever Christ was pleased to communicate to the 
other princes — whatever he did not withhold from the others — He granted 
only through him."|| 

It is manifest that a power was claimed by the Popes over all the 
churches, in virtue of which laws were enacted, which all were called on to 
obey, under penalty of ecclesiastical censures. Besides that these claims 
were made to rest on divine right, there is nothing to warrant us in regard- 
ing them as groundless, since in many instances the power was exercised 
at the solicitation of the parties immediately concerned, and in most cases 
there was entire acquiescence in the authority claimed. It would be 
strange, that usurpation could have assumed such consistency, at so early a 
period, and have commanded the respect of distant prelates, naturally 
jealous of their own rights and independence. Bossuet deservedly rejects 
as rash and perverse, the exception taken by some to the evidence derived 
from papal documents, and loudly declares that " he puts entire confidence 
in the doctrine and tradition of the Roman Pontiffs concerning the majesty 
of the Apostolic See.^f 

A dispensing power, by which the rigor of the canons was mitigated, 
for just causes, was also exercised by the Popes from the earliest ages. 
We have seen the regulation by which Melchiades relaxed the severity of 
the ecclesiastical law, in order to provide for the Donatist bishops on their 
return to Catholic unity. Anastasius, in the commencement of the fifth 
century, was besought by the African bishops to show the like indulgence. 
They "resolved to write to their brethren and fellow-bishops, and es- 
pecially to the Apostolic See," to obtain a relaxation of the rigor of the 
canons of a Council beyond the seas, so that the Donatist bishops, on 

* Ep. xv. ad Turribium. 

f Ep. xii., ad ep. Afric. prov. Maurit. Caesar. 

J Proprie. Mr. Allies translates it, "by special commission." 

§ " By sovereign power." — Allies. 

|| S. Leo, Serm.iv. In anniversario die ejusdem assumpt. 
f Defens. decl. 1. x., alias xv. c. 6. 



154 



GOVERNING POWER. 



coming to the Church, might be received with all their honors.* Thus the 
power of the Pontiff to dispense in the general laws was solemnly recog- 
nised. 

The Popes, although solicitous for the observance of the canons, were 
always ready to dispense in them, when the return of the deluded children 
of error could be promoted by indulgence; in which exercise of clemency 
they wisely disregarded the censures of the over-zealous, who clamored 
for the severity of discipline. Some Spanish bishops complained that he- 
retics, on abjuring their errors, were allowed to retain possession of their 
sees : to whom Innocent I. replied : " If any are pained or grieved at this, 
let them read how Peter, the apostle, after his tears, was restored to his 
original station : let them consider that Thomas, after his doubts, retained 
bis former dignity : finally, that the great prophet David, after his open 
confession, was not deprived of the gift of prophecy. Yet he ac- 
knowledged the wisdom of the general rule, and traced the exceptions to 
necessity. When some persons ordained by the heretic Bonosus had been 
received to the Catholic communion, and allowed to officiate in their re- 
spective orders, Innocent ascribed this indulgence to necessity, and ad- 
mitted that it was not conformable to " the ancient rules which the Eoman 
Church received from the apostles, or apostolic men, and which she ob- 
serves, and commands to be observed by such as are wont to obey her. "J 
The same indulgence continued to be shown by his successors, when cir- 
cumstances demanded it : on which account Leo allowed Donatus, the No- 
vatian Bishop of Salicina, (or Saja,) in Africa, to retain his See, on ab- 
juring Novatianism and sending a satisfactory profession of Catholic faith 
to Rome j his former adherents passing with him to the Catholic com- 
munion^ Maximus, who had been advanced by the Donatists from the 
condition of a layman to the bishopric, was allowed to retain his see, on 
abjuring his errors. || 

In Greece, the Pope exercised the same authority, dispensing in the 
canons in extraordinary cases, where personal merit and the interests of 
the Church so required. Boniface I. appointed Perigenes Bishop of Co- 
rinth, who had been previously ordained for the See of Patras. Some 
bishops having resisted this exercise of authority, probably on the ground 
that the translation of bishops was forbidden by the canons, the Pope in- 
sisted that the act of the Holy See could not be called in question. In 
his letters to the Bishops of Macedonia, Achaia, Thessalia, Epirus, old and 
new, Prevalis and Dacia, he says : " The solicitude of the Universal 
Church, which he undertook, rests on the blessed apostle Peter, 



* Codex can. eccl. Afric. c. Ixviii. 

f Ep. iii. ad Tolet. Syn. t. i., Coustant, col. 766 

J Ep. xvi., ibid, col 835. 

§ Ep. xii. ad episc. Afric. prov. Maurit. Caesar. 
|| Ep. xii. ad episc. Afric. prov. Maurit. Caesar. 



GOVERNING POWER. 



155 



by the decree of the Lord, since ; according to the testimony of the 
Evangelist, he knows that it was founded on him : nor can his honor be 
free from solicitude, as it is certain that all depends on his deliberation. 
These things expand my mind to the provinces of the East ; which our so- 
licitude makes present to us." He proceeds to observe : " The Apostolic 
See, after mature examination of all the facts, appointed Perigenes Bishop 
of Corinth;" and he dwells on the grievousness of the sin of resisting the 
authority of blessed Peter, " in whom," he says, " our Christ established 
the high priesthood. Whosoever rises contumeliously against him, can- 
not become an inhabitant of the kingdom of heaven. ' To thee/ He says, 
'I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven :" into which no one can 
enter without the favor of the gate-keeper. ' Thou art/ He says, 1 Peter, 
and on this rock I will build My Church.' Whosoever, therefore, desires 
to be considered a priest in the sight of our G-od, since we come to God 
through Peter, on whom, as we before mentioned, it is certain that the 
Universal Church is founded, should be meek and humble of heart." 
Boniface, understanding that a synod was to be held at Corinth, to take 
into consideration the appointment of Perigenes, strongly denied the right 
to canvass the act of the Apostolic See : " No one has ever dared resist 
the Apostolical supremacy,* whose judgment cannot be reviewed. "f This 
shows not only his own sense of the Apostolic prerogative, but also his 
confidence that all the precedents of antiquity were in harmony with his 
views. 

Besides the many positive acts of authority which I have enumerated, 
the answers given to the consultations of the bishops from every part of 
Christendom, prove that the Roman bishop was a Superior, to whom all 
looked up for guidance. St. Jerom testifies that when at Rome, during 
the pontificate of Damasus, he was constantly engaged, by his order, in 
answering the synodical consultations that poured in from the East and 
the West. J The papal documents which I have quoted, were generally 
drawn up in reply to such consultations. Hallam admits that " consulta- 
tions or references to the Bishop of Rome, in difficult cases of faith or 
discipline, had been common in early ages, and were even made by pro- 
vincial and national councils. "§ 

Dr. Nevin observes : " If any thing in the world can be said to be his- 
torically clear, it is the fact that with the close of the fourth century and 
the coming in of the fifth, the Primacy of the Roman See was admitted 
and acknowledged in all parts of the Christian world. This is granted by 
Barrow himself, in his great work on the Supremacy : though he tries to 
set aside the force of the fact, by resolving it into motives and reasons to 
suit his own cause." 



* Culmini. 

X Ep. xci. alias xi. 



f Ep. xv. Coustant, t. i. col. 1042. 
$ Middle Ages, ch. vii. note. 



156 



GOVERNING POWER. 



§ 2. — UNIVERSAL PATRIARCH. 

It has been asserted that St. Gregory the Great disclaimed the title and 
authority of (Ecumenical or Universal Bishop, because he opposed the 
use of this title by John the Faster, Bishop of Constantinople. The term 
had been most justly applied to the Pope in various documents, of the 
Council of Chalcedon : but it had not been used by Leo, or any of the 
predecessors of Gregory, because it appeared ostentatious, and they chose 
to be, as it were, on a level with their colleagues, by the exercise of hu- 
mility, whenever there was no need of putting forward the authority of 
their office. Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria, having given this appel- 
lation to Gregory, the humble Pontiff wrote to him : "If your holiness 
calls me Universal Pope, you deny that you yourself are at all what you 
admit me to be entirely. But God forbid ! Away with words which 
innate vanity and wound charity/'* 

In writing to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, Gregory de- 
signates the title a profane one : " You know/' he says, " that this title 
was offered by the holy Council of Chalcedon to the Pontiff of the Apos- 
tolic See, which, by the appointment of God, I occupy : but none of my 
predecessors ever consented to use so profane a word, since if one is styled 
universal patriarch, the name of patriarch is denied to the others. But, 
far, far away be this from a Christian mind, to attempt to usurp a title, by 
which the honor of his brethren may be in the slightest degree di- 
minished !"f The term, because ambiguous and capable of perverse in- 
terpretation, and in fact perversely used by the Bishop of Constantinople, 
is styled profane j but as employed in documents of the Council of Chal- 
cedon, it was just and proper, although the Popes prudently abstained from 
its use. 

It is not probable that the title was assumed by the Bishop of Constan- 
tinople in its worst sense, since he does not appear to have had any idea 
of discarding the superior authority of the Roman Bishop, or of denying 
the episcopal character of his colleagues. After the demise of J ohn the 
Faster, Cyriacus, his successor, sent, as was usual, special messengers to 
report his ordination, and submit the acts of his synod to the Holy See. 
Gregory acknowledged that the language of the synod was Catholic ; but 
he complained that the dangerous title had not been abandoned. It was 
used, indeed, to signify amplitude, rather than universality of jurisdic- 
tion ; for which reason even the Patriarch of Antioch seemed willing to 
dissemble,J lest the peace of the Christian world should be disturbed on 
account of a term capable of a mild explanation : but Gregory perceived 
in it the germ of great evils, and justly reproached the ambitious prelate, 
as preparing the way for future encroachments : " What will you say at 
the last judgment to Christ, the Head of the Universal Church, whilst 



* L. iv. ep. xxxvi. 



f L. v. ep. xliii. 



X L. vii. ep. xxvii. 



GOVERNING POWER, 



157 



you are now striving, under cloak of this appellation, to subject all His 
members to yourself? Who, I pray, is held up as a model for imitation 
in this perverse term, if not he, who, despising the legions of angels, to 
whose ranks he belonged, attempted to rise to extraordinary distinction, 
that he might appear to be subject to none, and set over all — who even 
said : 1 1 will ascend into heaven, I will lift up my throne above the stars 
of heaven V "What are all your brethren, the bishops of the Universal 
Church, but stars of heaven, over whom you wish to set yourself by a 
haughty term, and whose title, compared with yours, you wish to trample 
under foot ?"* He shows that even the apostles were but members of the 
Church under Christ : " Surely Peter, the apostle, is the first member of 
the holy Universal Church : Paul, Andrew, John, what else are they but 
the heads of particular nations ?f and yet all are members of the Church 
under one head." J This presents the true relations of the apostles to the 
Church. Even Peter was but a member of it, under Christ, but the chief 
member, as being the first of the apostles, and "to him the care of the 
whole Church was committed." In this sense, only, is he styled head. 

The ambition of the Bishop of Constantinople manifested itself at an 
early period. Although Byzantium was but a suffragan see of Heraclea, 
up to the middle of the fourth century, the imperial dignity of the new 
Rome, as the city of Constantine was called, soon emboldened the Bishop 
to claim titles and privileges similar to those of ancient Rome. The 
fathers of Chalcedon, dazzled by the splendor of the imperial throne, con- 
sented to his wishes ; but Leo the G-reat annulled their decree, as deroga- 
tory to the rights of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, which had 
been recognised by the Council of Nice, and, by the authority of blessed 
Peter, he declared it of no effect. § This severe check did not deter John 
the Faster from aspiring to a title which the same Council had given only 
to the Roman Bishop, to whom he avowed his subjection, as Gregory tes- 
tifies. Speaking of certain Sicilian bishops, who murmured at the sup- 
posed adoption at Rome of some Oriental usages, at a time when the 
ambition of the Bishop of Constantinople should be checked rather than 
fostered, he remarks : " As to what they say concerning the Church of 
Constantinople, who doubts that it is subject to the Apostolic See ? This 
is constantly avowed by the most pious emperor, and by our brother, the 
Bishop of that city."|| "The Eastern Church," says Mr. Allies, " as its 
own rituals declare, always acknowledged St. Peter's primacy, and that his 
primacy was inherited by the Bishop of Rome."*[ The assumption of the 
offensive title had commenced in the pontificate of Pelagius, the predeces- 



* L. iv. ep. xxxviii. 

f Singulariurn plebium. He refers to the nations to which those apostles respectively 
preached the Gospel. 

X L. iv. ep. xxxviii. § Ep. lv. ad Puleher. 

|j L. ix. ep. xii. «[ Church of England, p. 111. 



158 



GOVERNING POWER. 



sor of Gregory, who, on learning that John had used it, in a synod cele- 
brated by him at Constantinople, in the year 588, " sent letters in which, 
by the authority of St. Peter the apostle, he annulled the acts of that 
synod."* In the same determined spirit of opposition to dangerous 
ambition, when Gregory understood that a synod had been called to meet 
at Constantinople, he addressed the bishops who were to convene there, 
and cautioned them against lending themselves to the designs of the 
Bishop of that city : u For," said he, " if one, as he thinks, is universal, 
it follows that you are not bishops." He reminds them that, " without 
the authority and consent of the Apostolic See, their proceedings could 
have no effect."")" 

It cannot be thought for a moment, that in rejecting the title Gregory 
disclaimed any superior authority in himself, as successor of Peter, since 
he affirmed the contrary, in the most positive terms, and exercised, in the 
most marked manner, the power of a ruler of the whole Church. a As- 
suredly^" says Mr. Allies, " if there was any Pontiff who, like St. Leo, 
held the most strong and deeply-rooted convictions as to the prerogatives 
of the Roman See, it was St. Gregory." J His letters abound with ad- 
monitions, injunctions, decrees and threats, directed to bishops in every 
portion of the Church, all of whom he treated as brethren whilst they 
were blameless ; but admonished them as a father, if they erred, and 
punished them as a judge, when they proved delinquent. When Serenus, 
Bishop of Marseilles, indignant at the marks of veneration given to a 
sacred image, broke it in pieces, as an occasion of superstition, and there- 
by shocked the feelings of the faithful, Gregory sent a special messenger, 
and wrote to admonish him that the excess, or abuse, should be corrected, 
without taking sacred images from the Church, in which they served as 
books for the unlearned. § On complaint being lodged of excessive lenity, 
amounting almost to connivance, used toward a licentious priest by the 
same prelate, he was subjected to such punishment as the Bishop of Aries, 
Vicar of the Holy See, should inflict: u nostra hoc sic vice corrigere."\\ 
The proofs of a similar exercise of power throughout Gaul, Italy, Sicily, 
and Corsica, are abundant. His vigilance extended to Illyricum, where 
he commissioned the Bishops of Justiniana Prima^" and of Scutari, to in- 
quire into the alleged invasion of the see by the deposed Bishop Paul, 
and, in case of his conviction, to confine him to a monastery, and deprive 
him of the holy communion until death.** It was likewise felt in Africa. 



* L. v. ep. xliii. f L. ix. ep. lxviii. 

% Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 156. § L. ix. ep. cv. I. xi. ep. xiii. 

|| L. xi. ep. lv. 

^[ A city in Bulgaria, the birthplace of the elder Justinian, was so called. A city in 
Moesia superior was called Justiniana Secunda : and the ancient city of Chalcedon was 
st} r led Justiniana Tertia. 

*•* L. xii. ep. xxx. xxxi. 



GOVERNING POWER. 



159 



Gregory enjoined on the Council of Byzacium* to investigate the charges 
made against their primate, and proceed as justice might require.f He 
directed the Bishop of Numidia, in conjunction with Victor, the primate, 
and other bishops, to examine the complaints of the clergy against Pau- 
linus, Bishop of Tegessis, and proceed according to justice y and he au- 
thorized Hilary, his notary, to he present at the trial.J The provinces 
immediately subject to the patriarchs were not beyond the reach of his 
authority, although he used it with the moderation which was inspired by 
respect for his colleagues. Hearing that simoniacal abuses existed in the 
Church of Alexandria, he addressed the Bishop of that city, exhorting 
him to abolish them without delay. § He communicated to the Bishop of 
Jerusalem the report made to him of simoniacal practices and of strifes 
which prevailed in that Church, urging him to remedy these evils. || 

The highest dignitaries addressed Gregory in terms expressive at once 
of his exalted station and personal merit. Anastasius, Patriarch of An- 
tioch, styled him " the mouth of the Lord."*!" He, in return, wrote to 
them affectionately ; and, whilst stating his faith, and explaining his sen- 
timents as to the duties of the pastoral office, gave to all the patriarchs 
sublime instructions for their own conduct.** To Eulogius, Patriarch of 
Alexandria, who had extolled the dignity of the chair of Peter, Gregory 
replied, that Alexandria and Antioch participated in this honor : " Your 
holiness,*)")" in your letters, has said many flattering things concerning the 
chair of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, who, you observe, still occupies 
it through his successors. — Who does not know that the holy Church is 
strengthened by the solidity of the prince of the apostles, whose name de- 
notes the firmness of his mind, he being called Peter from the rock ? To 
him Truth itself said : ( I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven.' And again : ' Thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren.' 
And again : 1 Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me ? Feed My sheep.' "JJ 

The contest concerning the use of the title " oecumenical" continued until 
Phocas, the emperor, in 607, forbade the Bishop of Constantinople to usurp 
it, and commanded the Apostolic See of Blessed Peter, " which is the head 
of all the churches," to be maintained in the enjoyment of her legitimate 
honors. §§■ The evil broke out anew in the ninth century, when Photius, the 
intruder into the patriarchate, found it his interest to disregard altogether 

* Now part of Tunis. f lb. ep. xxviii. 

X L. xiii. ep. xxxii. § L. xiii. ep. xii. 

|| L. xi. ep. xlvi. ^[ L. i. ep. vii. 

L. i. ep. xxv. -ff This title was not as yet confined to the Pope 1 . 

J J L. vii. ep. xl. 

This is attested by Anastasius in Vita Bonifacii III., and by Paulus Diaconus, 1. iv. 
e. xi. de gestis Longobard. Hallam ably shows the absurdity of dating the papal su- 
premacy from this epoch: "The popes/' he avows, "had unquestionably exercised a 
species of supremacy for more than two centuries before this time, which had lately 
reached a high point of authority under Gregory I." — Middle Ages, ch. vii. note. 



160 



GOVERNING POWER. 



the superior authority of the Roman Bishop. No one was better qualified 
to exemplify in his own person the results of the false principle, which 
measured the dignity of the bishop by his proximity to the throne, than 
the courtier who passed to the patriarchal chair through imperial favor. 
His revolt against the paternal rule of the successor of Peter, who main- 
tained the rights of Ignatius, the deposed patriarch, showed that pride and 
ambition are opposed to the order, which Divine "Wisdom has established 
in the Church. The scandal of this schism was subsequently repaired, 
and the governing power of the Roman Pontiff fully admitted by the 
Greeks ; but the elements of discord still remained, to burst forth anew 
with increased fury, in the eleventh century. From that time palliatives 
were in vain applied ; and, after several ineffectual attempts at reunion, 
the evil became desperate in the fifteenth century, when the sword of the 
Mussulman was employed by divine justice to punish the obstinacy which 
no condescension could cure. Thus the vanity of a title and the love of 
power, gradually brought on calamities which the weak men who first 
assumed it did not at all anticipate. But wisdom is justified in her chil- 
dren — the event having shown how vain it is to lean on the arm of the flesh, 
when the divine favor is withdrawn. The throne of the imperial favorite 
has been overturned, whilst the chair of Peter remains where his hand 
placed it. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



I 1.— PATRIARCHAL SYSTEM. 

Nothing is clearer in the history of the Church, than the distinction 
of rank among her prelates. In each province one bishop presided, whose 
see was generally in the chief city, whence he was called metropolitan and 
archbishop. In some nations, one was designated primate, whose rank 
was superior to that of the other metropolitans. There were also exarchs, 
or privileged bishops, who were exempt from dependence on immediate 
superiors in the hierarchy, although they did not exercise metropolitical 
authority. The name of patriarchs was given in the fifth century to the 
Bishops of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, each of whom from the com- 
mencement extended his jurisdiction over large provinces, or dioceses, as 
they were anciently called. The Roman Bishop exercised the power of 
metropolitan over the provinces styled Suburbicarian, which, within Italy, 
extended from Liguria to the Ionian Sea, and included Sicily; and he en- 
joyed patriarchal jurisdiction over the dioceses of the West, namely, be- 
sides all Italy, Illyricum, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and Africa proper. The 
Bishop of Alexandria was second in rank, governing Egypt, Lybia, and 
Pentapolis ; and the Bishop of Antioch exercised similar authority 
throughout the East. That the Roman Bishop was first in rank is not 
seriously questioned by any one who is conversant with ancient docu- 
ments. " The Bishop of Rome," says Mr. Allies, " as successor of St. 
Peter, has a decided pre-eminence. It is very apparent, and is acknow- 
ledged in the East, as well as in the West."* "No student of antiquity 
can doubt the primacy of the Roman See."f Describing the unquestioned 
constitution of the Catholic Church, at the time of the Council of Nicea, 
he states that " the three great Sees of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, 
exercised a powerful, but entirely paternal influence on their colleagues, 
that of Rome having the undoubted primacy, not derived from the gift 
of Councils, or the rank of the imperial city, but from immemorial tra- 
dition as the See of Peter."J 



* Church of England, Ac. p. 18. 

f Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 27. 

X Ibidem, p. 47. 

11 161 



162 



THE HIERARCHY. 



Although the terms patriarch and archbishop were occasionally applied 
to the Pope, they were not used as marking a restriction of power within 
local limits; on the contrary, the epithet oecumenical* was sometimes 
added, to denote his universal authority; and, although the Popes did, 
in fact, exercise throughout the provinces of the "West immediate jurisdic- 
tion and superintendence, such as the Patriarchs of Alexandria and An- 
tioch had in their respective provinces, yet it was not exercised as merely 
patriarchal, but as a portion of that apostolical authority which was lodged 
in Peter, and which embraced in its plenitude the whole flock of Christ. 
All antiquity shows that the Bishop of Rome, at all times, and every- 
where, acted as successor of Peter, and pastor of the Universal Church. 
The patriarchal jurisdiction enjoyed by the Bishops of the other two Sees, 
was, in truth, originally derived from the will of the apostle, who, as 
Innocent I. testifies, delegated to his disciple Mark, and to Evodius, a 
portion of his general solicitude, that they might have a more immediate 
supervision over their districts ;f whilst he reserved to himself the imme- 
diate government of the West, besides his general superintendence over 
the whole Church. The Council of Nice confirmed the rights and privi- 
leges of the two Sees of Alexandria and Antioch. 

The celebrated sixth canon of Nice is couched in these words : " Let 
the ancient customs be kept, which are in Egypt, Lybia, and Pentapolis, 
that the Bishop of Alexandria may have full power over all these places, 
as this is customary also with the Bishop of Rome. In like manner, also, 
in Antioch and in the other provinces, let the privileges, dignities, and au- 
thority of the churches be preserved. "| The clause regarding the Roman 
Bishop, which is used as confirmatory of the Alexandrian usage, marks 
the similitude of the patriarchal authority as exercised by each, but does 
not declare that they are in all respects alike. The occasion which gave 
rise to this enactment shows the object which the fathers had in view. 
Meletius, a bishop of Egypt, having been deposed by St. Peter of Alex- 
andria, formed a schism, and throwing off all dependence on that See, 
presumed to establish new bishoprics in that province. § "This canon 
was enacted," as Potter avows, "upon a complaint of Alexander, the 
Bishop of Alexandria, that the metropolitical rights of his See had been 
invaded by Meletius, the schismatical Bishop of Lycopolis in Thebais, 
who had taken upon him to ordain bishops without Alexander's con- 
sent." || The fathers confirmed the usage of the Church of Alexandria by 
reference to the usage of Rome. The learned Clinch observes, that 
"from the Creek, it appears first, that no confirmation was given at 



* See various documents read in the Council of Chalcedon. 

f Ep. xxiv. ad Alex. Antioch., to Agapitus, apud Fleury, L xxxii. an. 536 

t Coll. Hard. p. 432. 

§ Apol. ii. Athanas. 

|| Church Government, p. 188. See also Theodoret Hist. L i. c. ix. 



THE HIERARCHY. 



163 



Nicea to the usage of the Church of Eome : that on the contrary, the 
usage of Alexandria was confirmed, because it had the authority of Roman 
usage. Secondly, it is equally plain, that no boundaries are either 
marked, or alluded to, within which the Roman Bishop exercised that 
general authority which the fathers had in view."* 

The liberty taken by Ruflinus in his version of this canon, seems 
wholly unwarrantable, so that the investigation of its meaning should not 
be embarrassed by his interpolation. It becomes necessary, however, to 
notice it, as it has acquired importance by the pains which the learned 
have taken to reconcile it with well-known facts. He interprets the 
canon as meaning, "that the ancient custom be observed in Alexandria 
and in the city of Rome, so that the former bishop should have charge of 
Egypt, and the latter of the suburbicarian churches."-)* Great disputes 
have been raised as to the territory designated by the term ••suburbi- 
carian/' which some have explained of the district of the "praefectus 
urbis," extending only to the distance of a hundred miles around Rome; 
whilst Sirmond has proved that it embraced the ten southern provinces of 
Italy, together with Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and other adjacent islands, 
all of which were subject to the officer styled Vicarius urbis. Mr. Pal- 
mer asserts that this was the original and legitimate extent of the Roman 
patriarchate, from which he excludes even the northern provinces of 
Italy, as well as Gaul, Spain, Britain, and other nations. J The learned, 
however, generally admit that the whole West, including Africa proper, 
was subject to the patriarchal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, since, 
in fact, he exercised from the earliest period, a special superintendence 
over all the Western nations. It is not, indeed, our interest to dispute 
the position of the Anglican divine ; for if the patriarchal power was con- 
fined within such narrow limits, the numerous instances in which the Ro- 
man Bishop interposed in the ecclesiastical affairs of the more distant 
countries, can only be accounted for by his authority as primate of the 
entire Church. 

Boniface I., in the early part of the fifth century, in a letter to the 
bishops of Thessalia, did not hesitate to affirm, that the Nicene fathers 
had made no decree in reference to the prerogatives of the Holy See, be- 
cause they were conscious that these flowed from a higher source than 
ecclesiastical legislation, namely, the will and act of Christ Himself. 
••The general institution of the rising Church began/' he says, " with the 
honor of the blessed Peter, in whom its government and highest authority 
centre ; for from this fountain ecclesiastical discipline has flowed through 
all the churches, as religion increased. This is obvious from the laws of 
the Nicene synod, which did not attempt to enact any thing in regard to 
him, knowing that nothing could be conferred above his merit, and that 



* Letters on Church Government, p. 271. f Hist. Eccl. 1. i. c. vi. 

X Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vii. p. 507. 



164 



THE HIERARCHY. 



all things were granted to him by the voice of the Lord."* The same 
Pontiff describes the privileges of the Sees of Alexandria and Antioch as 
guarded by ecclesiastical enactments, for the purposes of unity, and with 
necessary dependence on the apostolic chair. 

In the great Council of Chalcedon the primacy of the Roman See was 
solemnly acknowledged and most effectually exercised. " We consider/' 
said the fathers, " that the primacy of all and the chief honor, according 
to the canons, should be preserved to the most beloved of God, the Arch- 
bishop of ancient Rome."f The details of the proceedings show most 
plainly the power which the Pontiff exercised through his legates, so that 
Mr. Allies, speaking of this Council, says : " that (the patriarch) of Rome 
has the unquestioned primacy, and is seen at the centre, sustaining and 
animating the whole. "J Leo, of whom he speaks, thus explains the whole 
economy of the Church : " Though priests have a like dignity, yet they 
have not an equal jurisdiction, since even amongst the most blessed apos- 
tles, as there was a likeness of honor, so was there a certain distinction of 
power, and the election of all being equal, pre-eminence over the rest was 
given to one, from which type the distinction between bishops also has 
arisen, and it was provided by an important arrangement, that all should 
not claim to themselves power over all, but that in every province there 
should be one, whose sentence should be considered the first among his 
brethren ; and others again, seated in the greater cities, should undertake 
a larger care, through whom the direction of the Universal Church should 
converge to the one See of Peter, and nothing anywhere disagree with its 
head."§ 

I 2.— WESTERN PATRIARCHATE. 

The claims of the Bishop of Rome on the obedience of the "Western 
churches, were not dependent on the mere principle of authority, since he 
begot them in Christ, by means of apostolic men, whom he sent to evan- 
gelize them : as Innocent I. affirmed, without fear of contradiction : " It 
is manifest that no one founded churches throughout all Italy, Gaul, 
Spain, Africa, and Sicily, and the adjacent islands, except those whom the 
venerable Peter, or his successors, ordained priests." || 

The exercise of papal power over the churches of Western Europe is 
proved by the very ancient practice of sending the pallium, a badge of 
authority, to bishops of distinguished rank, especially to metropolitans. 
As early as the year 836, it was used by the Bishop of Ostia, as a mark 
of his privilege as consecrator of the Bishop of Rome.^f " It was, about 
A.D. 500, given by Pope Symm^chus to his vicar, or legate, Cesarius of 



* Ep. xiv. 

% The Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 53. 
|| Ep. xxv. ad Decentium Eugub. 



f Act xvi. col. 637. 
g Ep. xiv. cap. i. xi. 
^[ Anastas. in Marci vita. 



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165 



Aries. The same Pontiff granted it to Theodore of Laureacum,* in con- 
formity with the usage of his predecessors. f It is spoken of as an imme- 
morial usage by Gregory the Great, in whose letters passages abound re- 
cording its concession to various prelates. He granted it to Constantius, 
Bishop of Milan, a metropolitical see j to Maximus, metropolitan of Dal- 
matia; to Leander of Seville, metropolitan of the province of Boetica, in 
Spain ; to J ohn of Corinth, metropolitan in the Morea ; to Andrew of 
Nicopolis, metropolitan in Epirus; to John of the First Justiniana, or 
Ocrida, metropolitan of Dardania ; and to the metropolitans of Aquileja, 
Cagliari, Dyrrachium, Crete, Philippopolis, and Salonica. He also 
granted it to Virgil of Aries. He directed the pallium to be given to the 
Bishop of Autun, in a synod, which he ordered to be held, requiring, 
however, a promise on his part to remove simoniacal abuses. J At the 
same time he assigned to this bishop the next place after the Bishop of 
Lyons, by his own indulgence and authority. § Notwithstanding these 
facts, Palmer says, that "with two exceptions, none of the Western 
bishops, except the Vicars of the Apostolic See, received the pallium till 
the time of Pope Zacharias, about 743." || When Desiderius, a bishop 
of some place in Gaul, sought to obtain this badge of authority, Gregory 
answered, that after diligent search in the Roman archives, he could find 
no document of such a grant to the predecessors of the petitioner.^" 
Sending it to the Bishop of Palermo, he observed : " We admonish you 
that the reverence due to the Apostolic See should be disturbed by the 
presumption of no one ; for the state of the members is sound, when the 
head of faith suffers no injury, and the authority of the canons continues 
always safe and inviolate."** 

The primacy of the Apostolic See was particularly displayed in the 
special privileges granted to some bishops, which were modified and 
changed, according as the interests of religion, in the altered circum- 
stances of various countries, required. The See of Aries from ancient 
times was invested with extraordinary authority, recognised and confirmed 
by Pope Zosimus : "We ordain that the Bishop of the city of Aries 
shall have, as he always has had, chief authority in ordaining priests. 
Let him recall to his jurisdiction the provinces of Narbonne the first, and 
Narbonne the second. Be it known that whosoever hereafter, in opposi- 
tion to the decrees of the Apostolic See, and to the commands of our pre- 
decessors, shall presume to ordain any one in the above provinces, without 
the authority of the metropolitan bishop, or whoever shall suffer himself 
to be unlawfully ordained, is deprived of the priesthood."ff Not only 



* The town Enns, in Austria, at the conflux of the river Enns and the Danube, is near 
the site of Laureacum. 

f Cone. edit. Mansi, t. viii. col. 228. J Ep. cvii. g Ep. cviii. 

|| Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vii. ch. viii. p. 521. 

f Ep. cxii. ** L. xiii. ep. xxxvii. ff Ep. i. Coustant, t. i. col. 936. 



166 



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are the ancient privileges of the See of Aries confirmed, but a most severe 
penalty is attached to their violation. Bishops who usurp the power of 
ordaining, in places subject to its jurisdiction, are suspended altogether 
from the exercise of episcopal functions. This authority, nevertheless, 
was restricted by St. Leo, who transferred a portion of the province to the 
See of Vienne,* but it was again enlarged by other Popes, who consti- 
tuted the Bishop of Aries Apostolic Legate. Guizot attempts to account 
for these changes, and for the jurisdiction subsequently granted to the 
Sees of Lyons and Sens, by the jealousy of the Koman Bishop, lest a 
Gaulish prelate, with extensive authority permanently attached to his see, 
should become a rival in the Western patriarchate :f but facts and docu- 
ments plainly show that the papal action was in all cases solicited, and 
that it was grounded on the representations of those concerned, and the 
change of local relations. The learned Clinch, with more discernment 
and justice, has observed : " The synod of Turin adjudged a primatial 
right to Vienne, as being a civil metropolis. The diocese of Aries ap- 
pealed from this decision to Koine, and by Home it was annulled. Leo I. 
took away from St. Hilary a portion of his diocese, and transferred it to 
Vienne. The See of Aries obtained from after-Popes a compensation for 
this loss by an apostolical delegation. The Bishop of Lyons next set up 
for the primacy, as being successor to Irenseus. In the mean time the 
ancient civil boundaries are shifted by the introduction of foreign princes; 
and the metropolitan power, which originally had meant primacy, being 
divided against itself, and undermined by time, required helps from that 
authority which alone remained confessedly the first. "J 

The terms in which the Bishops of the province of Aries besought Leo 
to restore the privileges of this see, contain what Mr. Allies designates 
" this undoubted testimony to the primacy of the Roman Church." 
" By the priest of this church, (Aries) it is certain that our predecessors, 
as well as ourselves, have been consecrated to the high priesthood by the 
gift of the Lord ; in which, following antiquity, the predecessors of your 
Holiness confirmed by their published letters this which old custom had 
handed down, concerning the privileges of the Church of Aries, (as the 
records of the Apostolical See doubtless prove ;) believing it to be full of 
reason and justice, that as through the most blessed Peter, prince of the 
apostles, the holy Roman Church holds the primacy over all the churches 
of the world, so also within the Gauls the Church of Aries, which had 
been thought worthy to receive for its priest St. Trophimus, sent by the 
apostles, should claim the right of ordaining to the high priesthood. "§ 



* Ep. Ixvi. 

f Cours d'hjstoire moderns, t. ii. p. 24. 
J Letters on Church Government, p. 245. 
§ Inter opera Leonis, ep. xlv. 



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167 



I 3.— APOSTOLIC VICARS. 

The delegation of authority to bishops as Vicars of the Apostolic See, 
is among the most splendid evidences of the primacy. Barrow acknow- 
ledges that in the fourth century the Popes bestowed the title of Vicars 
on various bishops : " The Popes, indeed, in the fourth century, began to 
confer on certain bishops, as occasion served, or for continuance, the title 
of their Vicar, or Lieutenant, thereby pretending to impart authority to 
them j whereby they were enabled for performance of divers things, which 
otherwise, by their own episcopal or metropolitical power, they could not 
perform. Thus did Pope Celestine constitute Cyril in his room. Pope 
Leo appointed Anatolius of Constantinople. Pope Felix, Acacius of 
Constantinople. Pope Hormisdas, Epiphanius of Constantinople. Pope 
Simplicius to Zeno, Bishop of Seville : 1 We thought it convenient that 
you should be held up by the vicariate authority of our see/ So did Si- 
ricius and his successors constitute the bishops of Thessalonica to be their 
vicars in the diocese of Illyricum. So did Pope Zosimus bestow a like 
vicarious power upon the Bishop of Aries. So to the Bishop of Justini- 
ana prima in Bulgaria, (or Dardania Europae,) the like privilege was 
granted (by procurement of the Emperor Justinian, native of that place.) 
Afterwards temporary or occasional vicars were appointed (such as Austin, 
in England, Boniface in Germany."*) 

When Maximus, a philosopher, had been ordained bishop by some 
Egyptian prelates, for the See of Constantinople, Damasus addressed a 
letter to Acholius, Bishop of Thessalonica, and other bishops, reprobating 
the irregularity of his ordination, and directing them to proceed to the 
election of a bishop, blameless, orthodox, and peaceful, in a synod to be 
held in the imperial city. He urged the observance of the ancient canons, 
which forbade a bishop to be transferred from one see to another, lest am- 
bition should be fostered, f By a special letter he instructed Acholius, as 
his Vicar, to see, that hereafter a Catholic bishop should be chosen, with 
whom peace could be permanently had. J This is the first instance of the 
appointment of an Apostolic Vicar throughout Illyricum, the reason of 
which is conjectured by Tillemont to be, that these provinces having been 
added by Gratian, in the year 379, to the Eastern empire, the Pope could 
no longer conveniently exercise a direct inspection over them, as he was 
wont to do over the remainder of the provinces of the West. Siricius 
addressing Anisius, Bishop of the same See, directed that " no one should 
presume to ordain bishops in Illyricum without his consent."§ 



* Treatise on the Supremacy, Supp. vi. p. 733. 

f Ep. viii. Damasi ad Acholium et alios, Coustant, t. i. col. 535. 

% Ep. ix. St. Innocent speaks of Acholius as having heen Vicar Apostolic. 

§ Ep. iv. Syricii, apud Coustant, t. i. col. 642. 



168 



THE HIERARCHY. 



Innocent I. constituted Rufus, Bishop of Thessalonica, Vicar, to de- 
termine " all cases that might arise throughout the churches of Achaia, 
Thessalia, Epirus old and new, Crete, Dacia, both mediterranea and 
ripensis* Mcesia, Dardania, and Prsevalis;"*) - alleging the examples of his 
apostolic predecessors, who had given like power to Acholius and Anysius. 
Boniface, having appointed Rufus, Bishop of Thessalonica, Vicar Apos- 
tolic, addressed him as charged with the care of all the churches of Illyri- 
cum : " The blessed apostle Peter has entrusted to the Church of Thessa- 
lonica all things, in his own stead." — " You have for your defence the 
blessed apostle Peter, who can oppose your enemies, according to that 
strength which is peculiarly his own. The fisherman does not suffer the 
privilege of his See to be lost, whilst you are laboring."! Again he says : 
"The blessed apostle Peter, to whom the citadel of the 
priesthood was granted by the voice of the Lord, rejoices ex- 
ceedingly, when he sees that the children of inviolable peace are careful 
of the honor granted him by the Lord."§ Some of the bishops having 
resisted the authority of Rufus, as Vicar Apostolic, Boniface reproaches 
and threatens them : " The apostle says : ' What will you ? Shall I come 
to you with a rod, or in charity and in the spirit of meekness V You 
know that blessed Peter can do both, — treat the mild with meekness — 
punish the proud with the rod. Therefore give due honor to the head. 
Certainly if in any respect the reproof (given by the Vicar to the bishops) 
appeared excessive, since the Apostolic See holds its principality in order 
that it may freely receive the complaints of all, we should have been 
addressed on this point, and an embassy sent to us, whom you see charged 
with the ultimate settlement of all things. Let there be an end to this 
novel presumption. Let no one dare hope for what is unlawful. Let no one 
strive to set aside the regulations of our fathers, which have been so loDg 
in force. Whoever considers himself a bishop, let him obey our or- 
dinance."|| 

Xystus sustained Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, in his privileges 
as Vicar Apostolic, and reminded Perigenes, Bishop of Corinth, to respect 
his authority, as he owed his own place to the favor of the Holy See.^f 
Addressing the synod of Thessalonica, he insisted on the maintenance of 
the authority of the Vicar.** 

St. Leo the Great, acting in accordance with the example of his pre- 
decessors, committed to Anastasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, the authority 
of Vicar over all the churches of Illyricum, assigning as the reason of 
this delegation his anxiety to discharge his duty as general pastor. 



* That part of Dacia which bordered on the Danube was called ripensis ; that part 
which was remote from this river was called mediterranea, or inland, 
f Ep. xiii. n. 2. % Coustant, t. i. col. 1035. 

\ Ep. iv. col. 1019, t. i. Hard. || Ep. xiv. Coustant. 

% Ep. vii. Coustant, t. i. col. 1262. *» Ep. ix. col. 1263. 



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169 



" Since," lie says, "our solicitude extends to all the churches, as the 
Lord requires of us, who entrusted to the most blessed apostle Peter the 
primacy of the apostolic dignity, as a reward of his faith, establishing the 
Universal Church in the solidity of the foundation itself, we communicate 
this necessary solicitude to those who are united with us by the affection 
of brotherhood. Following, therefore, the example of those whose me- 
mory we venerate, we have constituted our brother and fellow-bishop 
Anastasius our Vicar, and enjoined on him to see, from his watch-tower, 
that nothing unlawful be attempted by any one ; and we admonish you, 
beloved, to obey him in all that regards ecclesiastical discipline : for your 
obedience will not be rendered to him, but to us, who are known to have 
entrusted him with this office in those provinces, in consequence of our 
solicitude."* In this letter Leo decreed that the disputes of bishops 
should be terminated by his Yicar ; to whom likewise he reserved the con- 
secration of all metropolitans throughout the province : directing, at the 
same time, that no bishop should be consecrated by any metropolitan 
without his knowledge and authority. All these documents plainly prove 
that the power delegated was founded on the divine commission to Peter, 
for the government of the whole Church. In his letter to the Vicar, he 
expressly says that he appoints him to fulfil the duty " which, in virtue of 
our headship," by divine institution, we owe to all churches.f 

The term " Vicar Apostolic," in modern usage denotes a bishop whose 
title is not derived from the see or territory committed to his charge, 
which he governs rather as the delegate of the Holy See, during the good 
pleasure of the Pontiff. Some fancy the episcopal tenure to be uni- 
versally of this precarious character, so that all bishops are but as tenants 
at will, or officers of the Pope, to be dismissed when he judges proper. 
This, however, is not the sentiment of the Pontiff himself, who treats all 
titular bishops as his colleagues, and claims no right to remove them but 
for canonical causes, unless in extraordinary emergencies in which the 
highest interests of religion are at stake. The most ardent supporters of 
the papal privileges give us no other views. " The power of the Pope," 
says Ballerini, " although supreme, is not the only authority left by Christ 
in His Church, since bishops are called to share in his solicitude ; and 
although in the fulness of his power he can regulate and limit the exercise 
and use of their faculties, as he may deem it expedient for the good of 
the Church, nevertheless he cannot monopolize and assume to himself all 
their faculties, or make them as his mere vicars, or regard all the dioceses 
as his own :* whence it follows that not the Pope alone throughout the 
whole Church, but the bishops likewise in their respective dioceses have 
ordinary jurisdiction, by divine right."! Bolgeni also denies that bishops 



* Ep. v. ad episcopos metrop. per Illyricum. f Ep. x. 

J Vindicke auct. pontif. contra Just Febron. c. iii. n. 12. 



170 



THE HIERARCHY. 



are mere vicars of the Pope.* Their dependence on the Apostolic See is 
without detriment to their rank in the Church, as is evident from the 
reservation made in the oath of consecration : salvo meo ordine. They 
can address the actual Pontiff in the words which St. Augustin addressed 
to Boniface : " To sit on our watch-towers and guard the flock belongs in 
common to all of us who have episcopal functions, although the hill on 
which you stand is more conspicuous than the rest."f In truth their 
submission to the chief bishop is the great guarantee of their true inde- 
pendence, which they sacrifice to regal or popular caprice, when they 
attempt to set themselves free from the authority which Christ has placed 
over pastors and people. " In better times," as Mr. Allies ingenuously 
avows, " doubtless every bishop felt his hand strengthened in his par- 
ticular diocese, and had an additional security against the infraction of his 
rights by his brethren, when he was able to throw himself back on the 
unbiassed and impartial authority of the Bishop of Rome. J 

4. — PAPAL RELATIONS TO PATRIARCHS. 

As the exercise of pontifical power throughout the Western patri- 
archate, although constantly referred by the Popes themselves to the com- 
mission given to Peter, may not appear to all conclusive evidence of su- 
premacy, it is important to consider the relations of the Bishops of Rome 
to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch. These governed their 
respective provinces with full power, k^ooaia: without recourse to the 
Pope for the appointment of bishops, or other acts of ordinary juris- 
diction ) whom, however, they notified of their own consecration, to 
obtain recognition by letters of communion. St. Leo, writing to Timothy 
Salophaciolus, who had recently succeeded Timothy iElurus in the see of 
Alexandria, observes that his messengers, with the testimonials of his 
ordination, had come to the Apostolic See, "as was necessary and cus- 
tomary. "§ This system having been established from the earliest 
period, and having been ratified by many acts of the Popes, was 
altogether sufficient to convey jurisdiction, from whatsoever source it 
originally flowed. When their own authority was violently assailed, or 
when faith was endangered, the patriarchs had recourse to the Pontiff. 
Athanasius fled to Rome, to obtain pontifical aid against his persecutors, 
and on his return he was recommended to the confidence of his flock by let- 
ters of Pope Julius, in which he congratulated them on the success of their 



* L'Episcopato, vol. i. art. iii. See also Perrone, vol. viii. Tract, de locis theolog. 
p. 1, s. ii. c. iii. 

f Tom. x. 412 B., apud Allies, p. 76. 

X Church of England Cleared, Ac. p. 101. 

g Sicut necessario et ex more fecistis ut per filios nostros Danielem presbyterum, et 
Timotheum diaconum ordinationis tuae ad nos scripta dirigeres. — Ep. ci. ad Tim. Alex. 



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171 



prayers for the restoration of their bishop. Peter found aid in the same 
paternal authority, and returned to Alexandria in 378, " bringing with 
him a letter of the Bishop Damasus, in which he testified his faith in the 
consubstantiality of the Son, and approved of his ordination."* John 
Talaja, in the following century, sought the papal confirmation to occupy 
the same see, as Simplicius affirms in his letter to Acacius, " that the suc- 
cession of a Catholic bishop to the ministry of the deceased, might derive 
strength from the assent of the apostolic authority."f 

The dependence of the patriarchates on the Roman Bishop is further 
evinced from the pontifical interposition in some extraordinary cases. 
Leo, writing to Dioscorus, Bishop of Alexandria, to correct some usages 
which were not in harmony with the traditions of the Roman Church, 
observed, that the disciple of St. Peter had not certainly departed from 
the teaching of his master : "for," says he, " since the most blessed Peter 
received the apostolic principality from the Lord, and the Roman Church 
perseveres in his traditions, we cannot believe that his holy disciple Mark, 
who first governed the Church of Alexandria, framed differently the 
decrees which have come down from him by tradition. "J 

The energy with which this holy Pontiff exercised his office throughout 
the whole Church, is avowed by Mr. Allies : " In truth we behold St. 
Leo set on a watch-tower, and directing his gaze over the whole Church : 
over his own West more especially, but over the East too, if need be. 
He can judge Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, as well as 
Eugubium, and is as ready too. Wherever canons are broken, ancient 
custom disregarded, encroachments attempted, where bishops are neglect- 
ful, or metropolitans tyrannical, where heresy is imputed to patriarchs, in 
short, wherever a stone in the whole sacred building is being loosened, or 
threatens to fall, there he is at hand to repair and restore, to warn, to pro- 
tect, or to punish."§ 

The Church of Antioch was avowedly dependent on the See of Peter, 
as is clear from the testimony of Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, in the 
Council of Antioch: "It is customary, conformably with apostolic order 
and tradition, that the See of Antioch should be directed by the See of 
the great Rome, and should be judged by it."|| 

When the Bishop of Constantinople acquired importance, and claimed 
patriarchal authority, it was usual to communicate his ordination to the 
Holy See by a formal embassy. Nectarius being chosen Bishop of Con- 
stantinople, ambassadors were despatched by the Emperor Theodosius to 
the Roman bishop, with a view to obtain his assent and confirmation, as 
Boniface testifies : " Theodosius, a prince whose clemency is in sweet 
remembrance, considering that the ordination of Nectarius was not 

* Soerat. 1. iv. Hist. c. xxxvii. -f- Ep. vii. 

X Ep. ix. ad Dioscorum ep. Alex. £ Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 101. 

|| Cone. Antioch. act. iv. t. iv. Cone. Edit. Mansi, col. 1311. 



172 



THE HIERARCHY. 



assured, because it was not known to us, sending courtiers from his side 
with bishops, asked, in due form, a letter of communion to be addressed 
to him by this Holy See, to confirm his priesthood. "* This custom was 
considered obligatory; so that Pope Hormisdas required Epiphanius, 
Bishop of that See, to comply with it, not being content with a mere 
letter of information.-)- A splendid embassy was sent to Home, in the 
year 398, with Acacius of Beroea at its head, to notify the election of St. 
John Chrysostom.J Innocent I. refused to acknowledge Atticus, Bishop 
of Constantinople, until he should send ambassadors to communicate his 
election, and prove that he had fulfilled the prescribed conditions of peace. § 
St. Leo would not hold communion with Anatolius, until he was satisfied 
of his orthodoxy, and always spoke of his occupancy of that see as a 
favor which he owed to Pontifical indulgence. || Cyriacus, Bishop of that 
city, sent ambassadors to Gregory the Great, with the proceedings of the 
synod, after his ordination. 

The authority of the Pope became particularly manifest, when the 
patriarchates, in consequence of the incursion of heretics, required his 
interposition. Boniface states, u that the greatest Oriental churches, in 
important affairs which needed maturer discussion, always consulted the 
Koman See, and when the case required it, sought its aid. "If St. Basil, 
who was metropolitan of Csesarea, writing to Meletius, Patriarch of 
Antioch, communicated to him the design which he had formed of 
sending to Rome, in order to obtain a visit from some of the Italian 
prelates, to settle the disturbances of the East. The bearer of this letter 
was a deacon named Dorothee : " This resolution has been formed," he 
says, " that this same brother of ours, Dorothee, should go to Rome, and 
press some to visit us from Italy."** He wrote in like manner to St. 
Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria : " It has appeared to us advisable to 
send to the Bishop of Rome, that he may look to our affairs; and to sug- 
gest to him, that if it be difficult to despatch some persons thence by a 
general and synodical decree, he himself, by his authority, may act in the 
case, and choose persons able to bear the journey, and endowed with such 
meekness and firmness of character as would be likely to recall the per- 
verse to correct sentiments."ff Addressing Damasus, Bishop of Rome, 
he styles him, "Most honored Father!" and states that the hope that 
harmony and truth would prevail, having hitherto proved deceptive, he 



* Vide Bonifacii I. ep. xiv. t. i. Coustant. 

f Hormisdae, ep. Ixviii. alias cxi. 

J Pallad. de vita Chrysost, c. iv. 

§ Ep. xxii. apud Coustant, t. i. col. 848. 

|| " Quod nostro beneficio noscitur consecutus." — Ep. liv. ad Martianum Augustum. 
" Mei favoris assensu Constantinopolitanse ecelesise sacerdotium fuerit consecutus." — Ep. 
lv. ad Pulcheriam Augustam. 

H Ep. xvi. apud Coustant, t. i. col. 1043. ** Ep. Ixviii. ft Ep. lxix. 



THE HIERARCHY. 



173 



has recourse to him, that he may succor the churches of the East, as 
Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, had formerly done : " Being disappointed in 
our expectations, and unable to bear our evils any longer, we have resolved 
to write, and urge you to come to our relief, and to send to us some men 
harmonizing in sentiment, who may reconcile those who are at variance, 
or restore the churches of God to harmony, or, at least, make more 
manifest to you the authors of disturbance, that you may hereafter 
plainly know with whom it is proper for you to hold communion. We 
ask nothing new, but what has been usual of old with other blessed men 
beloved of God, especially among yourselves ; for we know by tradition, 
being instructed by our fathers whom we have questioned, and by docu- 
ments which are still preserved amongst us, that Dionysius, the most 
blessed bishop, who was illustrious among you for the integrity of his 
faith and his other virtues, visited, by letter, our Church of Caesarea, and 
sent persons to ransom the brethren from captivity. Our affairs are at 
present in a more difficult and gloomy situation, and need greater care : 
for we now grieve over, not the razing of our earthly dwellings, but the 
destruction of our churches — we witness not corporal servitude, but the 
bondage of our souls, which is daily effected by the abettors of heresy, 
who have the sway. Wherefore, unless you hasten to our relief, in a 
little while you will scarcely find any to whom you may reach the hand, 
since all will be brought under the power of heresy."* The language of 
this address is that of affectionate appeal to superior authority. Damasus 
was addressed not merely as a brother, sound in faith, and possessing 
wide influence, but as one clothed with power, whose messengers might 
gain to truth and peace the rebellious children of error. Were personal 
influence alone regarded, Basil might be expected to accomplish much 
more than the envoys of the Roman Bishop; whose high authority, 
however, would be respected by those who would not yield to the per- 
suasive eloquence of the metropolitan of Caesarea, or to the commands of 
the Patriarch of Antioch. 

Thus we have seen that the power of the Bishop of Rome was im- 
plored by the patriarchs themselves, and was effectually exercised in 
their behalf, whenever any emergency required his interposition. Mr. 
Allies asks : " When the ship of the Church was in distress, whom 
should we expect to see at the rudder but St. Peter V'\ That he did not 
ordinarily interfere in the affairs of their patriarchates, arose from a love 
of order, which prompted him to leave to his colleagues the care of that 
which was entrusted to their respective charge, and to confine himself to 
a general superintendence. The occasions of his interference were, how- 
ever, sufficiently numerous to mark clearly his right, and the grounds on 
which he always relied were such as to leave no question as to the divine 



* Ep. lxx. 



f Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 25. 



174 



THE HIERARCHY. 



source of his authority. He was first among the patriarchs, their superior 
and judge, not by courtesy, or conventional arrangement, but in virtue of 
the command of Christ to Peter : "Feed My lambs f "Feed My sheep 
" Confirm thy brethren/' 

Mr. Allies with great candor said : "I am fully prepared to admit that 
the primacy of the Roman See, even among the patriarchs, was a real 
thing, not a mere title of honor. The power of the first see was really 
exerted, in difficult conjunctures, to keep the whole body together. I am 
quite aware that the Bishop of Rome could do what the Bishop of Alex- 
andria, or of Antioch, or of Constantinople, or of Jerusalem, could not 
do. Even merely as standing at the head of the whole West, he coun- 
terbalanced all the four."* 



* Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 120. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



The office of bishop is perpetual, a sacred character, which can never 
be effaced, being impressed in ordination : yet the exercise of the power 
may for jnst causes be inhibited; nay, the governing authority, or juris- 
diction may be entirely taken away. The eminence of the dignity, which 
is no less than that of successor of the apostles, does not secure him who 
is adorned with it from danger of error, should he listen to the whisper- 
ings of pride, rather than guard that which is committed to his trust, or 
of vice, if he be neglectful of the approaches of temptation. For this 
reason the apostle addressed strong exhortations to Timothy and Titus, to 
fulfil the duties of their sacred office, and instructed them in what circum- 
stances they should receive accusations against the bishops* subject to 
their authority. The power of suspending bishops from the exercise of 
their functions, or of removing them altogether from the ministry, is 
among the most awful and sublime functions of the higher ecclesiastical 
dignitaries. In the early ages it was exercised by metropolitans, or other 
superiors, especially in Councils, where the assembled bishops judged and 
deposed the delinquents. Territorial limits were not always accurately 
observed, especially where one of the patriarchs intervened, whose high 
rank gave a coloring of authority even to acts performed beyond the 
province in which he presided. f Thus Flacillus, Bishop of Antioch, 
presided at a Council in which Athanasius of Alexandria was condemned ; 
and Theophilus of Alexandria undertook to try and depose Chrysostom 
of Constantinople, who, however, protested against his competency. The 
power was at all times exercised by the Bishop of Borne, in a manner to 
leave no room for doubt, that he claimed authority to judge and punish, 
by censure, all bishops, even patriarchs themselves, and that he grounded 
his claims on his office as successor of Peter. These claims were put 
forward with entire confidence, as admitting of no question ; and the 
exercise of the power was implored by bishops occupying the highest sees, 
and submitted to by those against whom it was exercised, or resisted 

?■ The Greek term, irpcopvrepos, was then applied to bishops. 

f Cyril acknowledged, that were he himself, or an Egyptian Synod, to pronounce sen- 
tence on Nestorius, he might be charged with going beyond the limits of his authority. 

175 



176 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



ineffectually. St. Leo, in his instructions to his Vicar in Illyricum, 
directed that cases of difficulty and importance should be reserved to' his 
own judgment;* whence Bianchi maintainsf that the deposition of 
bishops was from that time reserved to the Holy See. The reservation 
was well established in the ninth century, since the Council of Troyes 
implored Nicholas t. to provide for the dignity of the episcopal office, by 
restraining metropolitans, who sometimes attempted to depose bishops 
without the apostolic judgment, contrary to the decrees of his prede- 
cessors. t The deposition of Eothade, Bishop of Soissons, by Hincmar, 
Archbishop of Kheims, gave occasion to this complaint; and Nicholas 
rescinded the act as unjust, and irregular, it having been done without 
his knowledge. 

Potter records an early instance of the deposition of bishops by the 
Roman Pontiff : " Three bishops, who ordained Xovatian, the schismatic 
bishop, were deposed, and others ordained to succeed them, by Cornelius, 
Bishop of Rome ; whose proceedings in this matter were generally 
approved all over the world. "§ Cornelius acted as of his own authority, 
in proceeding to this measure, which met with universal approbation; 
the crime of the schismatical ordination being deemed by all most 
enormous, as tending to destroy, or render doubtful, the essential au- 
thority of the Church. 

Not long afterward another occasion arose for a similar exercise of 
power, no longer in the neighborhood of Rome, but over a bishop of an 
illustrious see in Gaul. Marcian, metropolitan of Aries, had openly 
espoused the cause of Xovatian, in consequence of which, the neighboring 
metropolitan of Lyons, with his suffragans, implored the Roman Pontiff 
to depose him from the episcopate. This measure having been delayed, 
they wrote repeatedly to Cyprian, praying him to use his influence for the 
speedy correction of the scandal : who accordingly addressed a letter to 
Pope Stephen, urging him to prompt and decisive action : " Faustinus, 
our colleague at Lyons, has repeatedly written to us, dearest brother, 
stating what I know has been reported to you also, both by him and by 
our other fellow-bishops in the same province, that Marcian of Aries has 
joined Xovatian, and has departed from the unity of the Catholic Church, 
and the harmony of our body, and of the priests. — "Wherefore it behooves 
you to write an explicit letter jj to our fellow-bishops in Gaul, that they 
may no longer suffer Marcian, an obstinate and proud man, and an enemy 
to Divine Mercy and to the salvation of the brethren, to insult our body, 
since being an abettor of Xovatian, and imitating his obstinacy, he has 
withdrawn from our communion, whilst Xovatian himself, whom he 



* Ep. vi. ad Ana;ta;-ium Thessalonic. f Dell'esterior politia, t. v. p. 1, p. 47S. 

J Ep. synod. Trieassin. ad Xicolaum I. § On Church Government, p. 392. 

II Plenissimas litteras. 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



177 



follows, was formerly excommunicated arid judged to be an enemy of the 
Church ; and when he had sent ambassadors to us in Africa, wishing to 
be admitted to our communion, he received for answer from a numerous 
Council of bishops, who were assembled, that he was without, and that 
none of us could communicate with him, since, whilst Cornelius was 
ordained bishop in the Catholic Church, by the judgment of God, and 
choice of the clergy and people, he was endeavoring to raise a profane 
altar, and to erect an adulterous see, and to offer sacrilegious sacrifices in 
opposition to the true priest.— Let your letters be directed throughout the 
province, and to the people of Aries, in order that Marcian be removed,* 
and another substituted in his place, and the flock of Christ gathered 
together, which, hitherto being scattered and wounded by him, is 
despised. "f It has in vain been attempted to explain this call for the 
interposition of Stephen, by reference to the fact that Novatianism had 
sprung up at Rome, on occasion of the opposition to the election of his 
predecessor. This was no reason why the bishops of Gaul should not, of 
themselves, proceed to the deposition of the heretical metropolitan, if 
Stephen were not his lawful and proper judge. They were not wanting 
in zeal against the heresy, since they had already addressed Stephen and 
Cyprian, urging the former to come to their aid, aud begging the influence 
of the latter for the speedy success of- their application. Of Stephen it 
was plainly expected, that he should remove the perverse teacher ; and to 
him Cyprian looked for official information of the appointment of his 
successor. 

Palmer, taking Du Pin for his guide, says that Cyprian only requested 
Stephen to write to the people of Aries, and the Gallican bishops to 
appoint another bishop in his stead :J but it is manifest that the au- 
thority of the Bishop of Home was solicited for the deposition of Marcian, 
abstento Marciano. Were personal influence and persuasion only sought, 
there would have been no need that the Bishops of the neighboring pro- 
vince of Lyons should have written so pressingly to Carthage and to 
Rome, merely to obtain a letter of advice from the Bishop of Rome to 
the Bishops and faithful of the province of Aries. 

The power of deposing bishops was recognised in the Pope by a Roman 
Council, held in the year 378, and by the Emperors Gratian and Valen- 
tinian. In addressing the emperors, the fathers state that " numberless 
bishops from various parts of Italy had assembled at the sublime sanc- 
tuary of the Apostolic See." They compliment the emperors as 
" observing the precept of the holy apostles," inasmuch as, having 



* Abstento Marciano. The Latin term was used of the deposition of an emperor, after 
he had been adjudged to be an enemy of the empire. Cyprian uses it in this letter of 
Novatian, who was removed from communion of the Church, and condemned as her 
enemy. 

f Ep. lxvii. alias lxviii. J Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. part vii. p. 4S9. 

12 



178 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



banished Ursinus, the leader of the schism, and separated his partisans 
from his society, they had decreed " that the Roman Bishop should try 
the other priests of the various churches, so that the Pontiff of religion 
with his colleagues, should judge of religion ; and the priesthood should 
not suffer in its honor, by subjecting the priest to the judgment of a 
secular judge, as might otherwise happen." They complain that some 
bishops, his partisans, still endeavor to persuade others a not to submit to 
the judgment of the Roman priest;" and mentioning several instances of 
deposed bishops who retain possession of their sees, they ask the aid of 
the civil authority to give effect to the ecclesiastical sentence. They pray 
that a bishop, who declines to appear for trial, may be compelled by the 
governor, or his Vicar, to repair to Rome ; or, if he be far distant, to 
appear before the metropolitan; and if the metropolitan himself be 
accused, that he be compelled to come to Rome without delay, or to 
appear before judges appointed by the Roman Bishop. In cases in which 
the metropolitan, or other judge, is open to suspicion, they wish an appeal 
to lie to the Bishop of Rome, or to a council of fifteen neighboring 
bishops.* The emperors granted their petition, giving civil force to the 
sentence of the Roman Bishop, passed with the advice of five or seven 
bishops. f These documents clearly prove the eminence of the Bishop of 
Rome, as occupant of the Apostolic See, and his right to judge other 
bishops, whether he sat alone, or surrounded by his colleagues. The 
reason of the qualifications prescribed in the imperial edict was, that the 
sentence should be passed solemnly, maturely, and advisedly: and 
although it had ecclesiastical force independently of these circumstances, 
the emperors thought fit to limit the civil sanction to sentences thus pro- 
nounced. Mosheim, and Maclame, his translator, refer to these measures 
as imprudent concessions of the emperors and bishops, which prepared 
the way for Roman supremacy :J but it is easy to see, on inspection of 
the documents themselves, that the belief that Rome was "the sublime 
sanctuary of the Apostolic See," preceded, and gave rise to them. Those 
who, in the investigation of ecclesiastical history, set out with the per- 
suasion, that the papacy is an invention of later ages, engrafted on the 
original system, can only discover in the many documents of an early 
date, " steps by which the Roman Bishops mounted afterwards to the 
summit of ecclesiastical power;" whereas they obviously show the 
exercise of high authority, derived from a divine source, and recognised 
alike by bishops and by emperors. 

So fully acknowledged was the power of the Pope to depose bishops, 
when false to the faith, or recreant to their duty, that the Eastern pre- 
lates solicited Damasus to depose Timothy, a bishop infected with the 



* Ep. vi. apud Coustant, t. i. col. 528. Ep. vii. ibidem, col. 532. 

% Fourth Century, part ii. ch. ii. p. 108 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



179 



heresy of Apollinaris, and received for reply that the sentence of deposi- 
tion had already been passed by the Apostolic See against the master and 
the disciple, in a solemn Council at Rome, at which the Bishop of Alex- 
andria was present : " Why do you ask of me anew/' said he, " to depose 
Timothy, who, together with Apollinaris, was already condemned here, 
by the judgment of the Apostolic See, in presence even of Peter, Bishop 
of the city of Alexandria The same zealous Pontiff, in a Roman 
Synod, deposed Ursacius and Valens; for which act he received the 
thanks of St. Athanasius, who urged him to proceed to the deposition of 
Auxentius, the Arian occupant of the See of Milan. Tuentius and Ursus 
having received episcopal consecration unlawfully, Zosimus addressed a 
letter to the Bishops of Africa, Gaul, and Spain, in which he says : 
" Dearest brethren, we have sent letters to your holiness, and throughout the 
whole world, wheresoever and in whatsoever part of the earth the fountain 
of the Catholic religion flows, that you may not think that Tuentius and 
Ursus are to be received in any ecclesiastical rank, in the communion of 
the Church, from which they are wholly cut off by anathema."f Thus did 
he most effectually depose them from the episcopate. 

Celestine directed all bishops holding the errors of Nestorius to be 
separated from the episcopal body, and ordered John of Antiocn to be 
notified, " that unless he hold our sentiments and condemn in writing the 
new blasphemy, the Church would take such measures in his regard as the 
interests of faith might deinand/'J 

The papal legates in the Council of Chalcedon deposed Dioscorus, Patri- 
arch of Alexandria, in the name of Leo : " The most holy and blessed 
Leo, Archbishop of great and elder Rome, by us, and by the present holy 
synod, together with the most blessed apostle Peter, who is the rock and 
ground of the Church, and the foundation of the right faith, has stript 
him of the dignity of the episcopate. "§ "The Apostolic See," as G-e- 
lasius testifies, " by its own authority condemned Dioscorus, the prelate 
of the second see." 

Ephesus was an autocephalous\\ see, which Bassian, by the 'favor of 
Proclus, of Constantinople, occupied, to the prejudice of that independence 
which it derived from the apostles Paul and John, its founders. The 
clergy and people seeing that the intruder cared only to secure his own 
honor, by compromising the privileges of the Church, accused him to 
Pope Leo, and having exposed the unworthy means by which he had 
usurped the see, obtained a sentence of deposition, which was acknow- 
ledged and recorded in the great Council of Chalcedon : " The most holy 



* Ep. xiv. t. i. col. 514, Coustant. f Ep. ir. 

X Ep. xxii. ad Syn. Ephes. apud Coustant, t. i. col. 1202. £ Act iii. 

|j Independent Sees, which were not subject to a metropolitan ; or metropolitan pees 
exempt from patriarchal authority were so styled. No see was absolutely independent, 
since all are necessarily subject to the chief Bishop. 



180 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



Roman Archbishop Leo deposed him, because he was made bishop con- 
trary to the canons." Sixtus III. deposed Polychronius, Bishop of Jeru- 
salem. Peter Mongus, Bishop of Alexandria, was excommunicated by 
Simplicius. Peter Cnapheus, Bishop of Antioch, having fallen into 
various heresies, especially that of Eutyches, was admonished by Felix 
III., and finally stricken with anathema, and deposed in this solemn 
form : " Having written two letters to you, I now proceed to pass sentence 
against you : yea, rather, lie (sentences you) who is the head of all 
pastoral sees, the glorious Peter, truly the greatest of the apostles."* 
Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople, who was charged with the execution 
of this sentence, and of several others, afterwards himself fell under sus- 
picion, and was summoned to answer in the assembly of bishops to St. 
Peter, to whom, in the person of Felix, the accusation was made.t He 
was finally cut off utterly from the Catholic Church. " Being separated 
from the honor of the priesthood, and from Catholic communion, and 
likewise from the number of the faithful, know that the name and office 
of the priestly ministry are taken from you, being condemned by the 
judgment of the Holy Ghost and by apostolic authority.";); Mosheim 
relates the deposition of Acacius in these terms : " The Roman Pontiff, 
Felix II., § having assembled an Italian Council, composed of sixty-seven 
bishops, condemned and deposed Acacius, and excluded him from the 
communion of the Church, as a perfidious enemy to the truth." The 
opposition of the Greeks to the execution of this sentence the historian 
takes as a denial of the right of the Roman See to pronounce censure on 
the Bishop of the imperial city; but he admits that Rome finally suc- 
ceeded in exacting its acceptance. " Hence," he says, u arose a new 
schism and a new contest, which were carried on with great violence, until 
the following century, when the obstinacy and perseverance of the 
Latins triumphed over the opposition of the Oriental Christians, and 
brought about an agreement, in consequence of which, the names of 
Acacius and Fullo were erased from the diptychs, and sacred registers, 
and then* branded with perpetual infamy." || This is no equivocal proof 
that the right of the Roman Bishops to depose even the Bishop of the 
imperial city, although he was protected and supported by the emperor, 
was incontrovertible. It is not true that the Orientals generally resisted 
the sentence. Acacius, indeed, remained obstinate, but died in a few 
years. Flavita, his successor, sought the communion of the Holy See, 
which was denied him, unless he removed the suspicions which fell on 
his faith, and cancelled from the sacred tablets the name of Acacius. 
Euphemius, who soon succeeded him, a man of sound faith, pleaded in 
vain that the memory of Acacius might be spared ; alleging, among other 
things, that he should not have been condemned by a single bishop. 



* Hard. t. ii. col. 826. 

§ Others style him Felix III. 



f lb. col. 829. $ lb. col. 832. 

|| Mosheim, Church History, p. 2, ch. v. £xxi. 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



181 



Gelasius, who then occupied the chair of St. Peter, answered, that 
Acacius had been condemned in virtue of the Council of Chalcedon, since 
he professed heresies which it had proscribed ; but independently of this 
fact, the Pontiff relied on the supreme authority of the Holy See, 
whose judgments are final. He showed that Acacius, previously to his 
own condemnation, had accepted and executed a commission of the Holy 
See for the deposition of several bishops : " Timothy of Alexandria, and 
Peter of Antioch, Peter, Paul, and John, and others, not one only, but 
several bearing the priestly title, were cast down by the sole authority of 
the Apostolic See. Of this fact Acacius himself is witness, since he was 
charged with the execution of the sentence. In this manner, then, 
falling into company with those who have been condemned, Acacius is 
condemned/'* By embracing their errors, he provoked the like con- 
demnation. 

A most splendid instance of the exercise of the papal power occurred 
on occasion of the visit of Pope Agapetus to Constantinople, at the 
solicitation of Theodatus, King of the Goths, with a view to persuade the 
Emperor Justinian to abandon his intended invasion of Italy. His 
failure in the direct object of his visit made the acts of spiritual authority 
which he exercised the more remarkable. Anthimus, Bishop of Tre- 
bizond, through the favor of the empress, had recently occupied the See 
of Constantinople, left vacant by the death of Epiphanius. Plis hos- 
tility to the Council of Chalcedon, although artfully dissembled, was 
known to Agapetus, who could not be prevailed on by the emperor or 
empress, by threats or promises, to admit the heretical usurper to his 
presence. He offered, indeed, to allow him to return to his original see, 
on his unequivocal acceptance of the Council ; but in no case would he 
suffer him to occupy the see of the imperial city. After some delay, in 
order to give him time for submission and repentance, the Pope convened 
a Council of bishops at Constantinople, summoned him to appear for trial, 
pronounced sentence of deposition against him, absent by default, and 
consecrated with his own hands Mennas in his stead.f 

The Emperor of Constantinople solicited Gregory the Great to proceed 
in the case of the primate of Byzacium jj but he hesitated to come to a 
final decision, not feeling assured of the sincerity of the accused in his 
professions of submission : " As to his saying," observes the Pope, 
speaking of the Primate, "that he is subject to the Apostolic See, I 
know not what bishop is not subject to it, when any fault is found in 
bishops. But when delinquency does not require it, all of us are equal, 
on the principle of humility." § 



* Ep. xiii. f See Fleury, Hist. 1. xxxii. a. 536. 

J In Africa. Adrumetum, now Mahumeta, was the chief city. It is in the kingdom 
of Tunis. 
I Ep. lix. 



182 



DEPOSITION OF BISHOPS. 



It is unnecessary to give further examples, since those already adduced 
plainly show that the Koman Bishop, as the superior of all other bishops, 
judged and deposed them, either in solemn council, or, with less solem- 
nity, by his own act. No prelate, however elevated, was exempt from 
his judgment. Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Constantinople, enjoyed 
privileges; but remained subject to the supervision, correction, and cen- 
sure of Rome. The imperial favor availed nothing against apostolic 
prerogative. The successor of Peter did not, however, always appear in a 
menacing attitude. He could heal, as well as strike ; and he was often 
appealed to, that the wounds inflicted by others might be remedied by 
his indulgence and authority. 



CHAPTER XV. 



l 1.— ANCIENT EXAMPLES. 

In all governments there is a tribunal of appeal, whose judgment is 
final. By it the sentences of the inferior judges are confirmed, when 
found conformable to justice and law; or, if otherwise, reversed and cor- 
rected. The existence of such a tribunal is an evidence of its supre- 
macy : the judge must be the sovereign, or his representative, or the 
depositary of supreme juridical power, which he, in fact, exercises. The 
usage of appealing to the Bishop of Rome from the judgment and cen- 
sures of bishops and Councils, in every part of the Church, which is 
most ancient, shows that he was believed to possess a power superior to 
all other bishops. 

St. Epiphanius relates of Marcion, that having been excommunicated 
for a grievous sin against chastity, by his father, the Bishop of Sinope,* 
he fled to Rome, about the year 141, and sought to be restored to com- 
munion ; but that the chief clergy, (the see being vacant,) declared, that 
they could not grant him relief, without the consent of his father, with 
whom they were united in faith and friendship. "j" The journey and the 
application show that he recognised the superior power of Rome; and the 
refusal which he met with, is an evidence, not of want of authority in 
the Roman Church, but of discretion and moderation in its exercise. 
The case may not be strictly styled an appeal, since it does not appear 
that the injustice of the sentence was complained of; but it implies that 
even a just penalty inflicted by an Asiatic prelate, could be mitigated by 
the ruler of that Church. 

It is evident from the testimony of St. Cyprian, that in his time the 
Bishop of Rome took upon himself to restore bishops deposed by the 
Council of their province. Basilides, Bishop of Asturia, in Spain, who 



* In the early ages, men who had been married but once, (" the husband of one wife,") 
were often assumed to the ministry; it being difficult, especially on the first preaching 
of the Gospel, to find persons of mature age who had not been married. The actual 
discipline of the Church still allows such persons to be ordained after the death of their 
wives, or on a mutual and voluntary profession of continency. 

\ Hasr. xiii. n. ii. 

1S3 



184 



APPEALS. 



had been deposed on the charge of idolatry, and other crimes, having re- 
paired to Rome to plead his cause, succeeded in inducing Pope Stephen 
to restore him. In the interval, another bishop, Sabinus, had been con- 
secrated and placed in the see. St. Cyprian, being consulted by the 
Spanish prelates, held that Sabinus should not be dispossessed, since the 
decree for the reinstatement of Basilides had been surreptitiously ob- 
tained. " His ordination," he remarks, " which has been regularly 
performed, cannot be rescinded, merely because Basilides, after the dis- 
covery of his crimes, and his own public confession of guilt, going to 
Rome, deceived Stephen our colleague, far distant from the scene of ac- 
tion, and unacquainted with the proceedings and with the facts which 
were suppressed, in order to be reinstated in the episcopate, from which 
he had been justly deposed. This only shows that the crimes of Basilides 
are not cancelled, but aggravated by the additional guilt of fraud and cir- 
cumvention, together with his former sins. Nor is he who has been im- 
posed on unadvisedly, so blamable, as he who fraudulently practised on 
his credulity, is deserving of execration. If Basilides has succeeded in 
deceiving men, he cannot deceive God, since it is written : f God is not 
mocked/ St. Cyprian opposed the execution of the sentence, not on 
the ground of a want of authority, which would have been the obvious 
method, if the power of Stephen admitted of any question ; but be- 
cause he had proceeded on false information. The right to reverse the 
sentence, if the merits of the case admitted it, not being denied, must be 
taken as acknowledged. In maintaining the incapacity of Basilides, and 
also of Martialis, another deposed bishop, to hold the bishopric, St. 
Cyprian relies on the law regarding persons guilty of idolatry, made by 
Cornelius, the predecessor of Stephen: "In vain," says he, "such men 
attempt to usurp the bishopric, whilst it is manifest that they should 
neither preside over the Church of Christ, nor offer sacrifice to God, 
especially since long ago, in union with us and with all bishops, without 
exception, throughout the whole world, even Cornelius our colleague, 
a pacific and just priest, and through the special favor of God, honored 
with martyrdom, decreed that such men might indeed be admitted to do 
penance, but are precluded from clerical ordination and priestly honor."f 
This reference to the decree of Cornelius, to which the whole episcopal 
body had assented, shows the eminence of his authority. 

In a letter to Cornelius, St. Cyprian makes mention of Privatus, a 
heretic, in the province of Lambesita,J who, many years previously, had 
been condemned by a Council of ninety bishops. He had in vain 
attempted to have his cause reopened in a Council of Carthage. Disap- 
pointed in this effort, he had recourse to Rome, and during the vacancy 
of the see, he urged the Roman clergy to reverse the sentence. The 



* Ep. lxviii. 



f Ep. lxviii. 



J Algiers. 



APPEALS. 



185 



letter of. Cyprian put them on their guard ; but independently of it, they 
judged unfavorably of the case. In reply, they commend the conduct of 
Cyprian in giving them, as was customary, full information, that they 
might better discharge the duty incumbent on them in behalf of all the 
churches : " As to what concerns Privatus of Lambesita/' they observe, 
" you have, as usual, been careful to call our attention to the case, as one 
of moment: for it behooves us all to keep guard for the body of the 
entire Church, whose members are spread throughout the various pro- 
vinces. But even before the receipt of your letter, the frauds of the 
crafty man did not escape our notice. For, when one of his impious 
band, Futurus, an ardent partisan of Privatus, had come, endeavoring to 
procure letters from us, his true character was not unperceived by us, on 
which account he did not receive the letter which he desired."* Thus it 
is clear that Privatus appealed to the Roman Church, whose authority was 
exercised by the clergy, during the vacancy of the see, who refused 
redress, because they knew him to be undeserving. St. Cyprian, ne- 
vertheless, complained of the appeals of the minor clergy, as derogatory 
to the judgment of their bishops and of the Councils by which they had 
been condemned, and as tending to relax discipline and defeat justice. 
He also stated in strong terms the artifices of heretics, whereby they 
sought to abuse the good faith of the Bishop of Eome. Fortunatus had 
been ordained Bishop in Carthage, in opposition to Cyprian, and had de- 
spatched to Rome an abettor of his schism, the priest Felicissimus, to pre- 
occupy the ears of the Pope. Cyprian expresses his surprise at the 
audacity of the schismatics. " What cause," he asks, " had they to go 
(to Rome) and announce the false bishop who was created in opposition to 
the other bishops ? For either they are satisfied with what they have 
done, and persevere in their wickedness, or, if they are sorry, and abandon 
it, they know whither they may return. For since it has been determined 
by us all, it is equally just and proper that the cause of every one should 
be tried where the crime was committed, and since to each of the pastors 
a portion of the nock is given, which each one may rule and govern, being 
to render an account of his conduct to the Lord, it is certainly meet, that 
those over whom we preside should not run about, nor, with crafty and 
deceitful temerity, destroy the unity and harmony of the bishops, but 
should plead their cause where the accusers and witnesses of their crime 
may be present ; unless, perchance, a few desperate and abandoned men 
regard as insufficient the authority of the African bishops, who have 
already pronounced judgment on them, and have recently by their weighty 
sentence condemned them as guilty of many crimes, of which they them- 
selves are fully conscious. Their cause has been already tried, sentence 
has been already passed on them ; and it is not consistent with the gravity 



* Ep. xxx. 



186 



APPEALS. 



of sacerdotal judgment, that it should be rescinded easily and lightly, since 
the Lord teaches us, saying: 'Let your speech be : yea, yea; no, no/ "* 
Cyprian was delighted to find that Cornelius had repelled them. 
plainly disapproved such appeals, as calculated to encourage insubordina- 
tion, and screen the guilty from punishment : yet he does not deny in the 
abstract the right to make or receive them. 

The fourth century offers us an illustrious instance of an appeal made 
by the great champion of the divinity of Christ, the persecuted Bishop 
of Alexandria. In the year 335, whilst Constantine was still alive, 
Athanasius had been condemned and deposed by a Council held at Tyre, 
in which Flacillus, Patriarch of Antioch, presided. Constantine, under 
the influence of the Eusebians, banished him; but, towards his death, 
relented : and after his decease his sons, in compliance with his wishes, 
permitted him to return to his see. — The Eusebians, mortified at his 
restoration, and resolved on his ruin, sent legates to Constance and Con- 
stans, and wrote against him to Pope Julius. "Without awaiting any act 
of the emperors or Pontiff, they held a Council at Antioch in 341, and 
regarding his restoration as irregular, chose Gregory of Cappadocia, an 
Arian, to be Bishop of Alexandria, and sent him with the prefect 
Philagrius, and a military escort, to take possession of the see. They 
had previously sent Martirius and Hesychius, two deacons, as deputies to 
Rome ; who meeting there the deputies of Athanasius, and failing to sus- 
tain the charges which they had advanced against him, found themselves 
under the necessity of calling for a trial, f that they might not appear 
utterly to abandon their cause. Julius accordingly called a Council, in 
order to have a full investigation. In the mean time Athanasius arrived 
at Rome, having fled from the violence of the intruder Gregory, and his 
partisans. The Pontiff sent legates to summon the accusers ; and de- 
termined likewise to institute inquiry into the crimes which they them- 
selves, or their partisans, had committed, and to punish them accordingly. J 
Under various pretexts, they detained the messengers, and in the end, 
wrote an offensive letter, in which they complained of the intended re- 
opening of the cause of Athanasius, whilst they admitted "the pre- 
eminence of the Roman Church, as avowed by all, as having been from 

THE COMMENCEMENT THE SCHOOL OP THE APOSTLES, AND THE ME- 



* Ep. lix. alias liv. lv. 

f " Concilium indici postularunt, literasque et ad Eusebianos, et Atbanasium Alexan- 
driam, quibus convocarentur, mitti, ut coram omnibus justo judicio de causa cognosci 
posset: turn enim se de Athanasio probaturos esse, quod jam nequirent." — Epist. Julii, 
p. 391. 

X " Certe fratres nostri Romae anno superiori infensi prioribus eorum factis, quum 
nondum scelera ista accesserant, pro ultione sumenda concilium indici, celebrarique 
voluerunt." — S. Atbanas. ad Orthodox, p. 338. 



APPEALS. 



187 



TROPOLis or piety."* Notwithstanding their opposition, Julius pro- 
ceeded to examine the cause, in a Council consisting of fifty prelates. 
The acts of the Synod of Tyre, and of the committee of bishops who 
were appointed to inquire into the facts at Mareotis,f where they were 
said to have occurred, being submitted to examination, were found to be 
irregular and unjust; and Athanasius was acquitted by the unanimous 
judgment of the fathers. Julius communicated the result of their in- 
vestigation, in the admirable letter preserved by Athanasius, which unites 
mild persuasion with authoritative judgment. 

The complaint made by the Eusebians, of the re-opening of the cause, 
shows that they had not seriously asked for a trial, and that the demand 
made by their deputies was a last subterfuge, when they had failed to sub- 
stantiate their charges in the less solemn discussion with the deputies of 
Athanasius. J It is for this reason that they expressed their willingness 
to abide by the judgment of Julius, if he would undertake the investiga- 
tion. They hoped that he would decline; and when, contrary to their 
expectations, he consented, those who had sent them shrunk from the 
trial, and sought by every frivolous pretence to excuse their default. 
They had applied for a confirmation of their sentence by the only au- 
thority which could render it final and conclusive ; but as Athanasius 
sought to be released from their unjust censure, the actual proceedings 
were in the nature of an appeal. The decision, although made in a 
synod, and with the assent of all, was emphatically and justly styled the . 
judgment of Julius, even by the Council subsequently held at Sardica. 
It has all the qualities that constitute a real exercise of judicial authority. 
Complaints had been lodged against Athanasius with Julius, as with a 
judge and superior ; afterwards, the cause proceeded entirely against the 
will of the party in whose name the investigation had been demanded. 
This was manifestly the exercise of a supreme and independent judicial 
power, not derived from the voluntary act of those concerned. In his 
letter Julius distinctly claims the right of summoning all the parties to 
his tribunal. At the head of the accusers was Flacillus, Patriarch of 
Antioch ; — the accused, Athanasius, was Patriarch of Alexandria, the 
highest dignitary after the Roman Bishop, within whose jurisdiction both 
were embraced. As a proof of the innocence of Athanasius, Julius 
alleges that he freely presented himself in Rome, and awaited during a 
year and a half the arrival of his accusers. He adds that " by his pre- 
sence, he put them all to shame, for he would not have presented himself 
for trial, had he not been confident of his innocence; nor would he have 



* Qzpziv fxzv yap -nasi <pt\oTt[.uav rr\v pu)p.aia)v ZKKkiqaiav zv toi; ypap.p.aaiv WjxoXoyovv, coj d-KOaroXuiV 
(ppovTicrripiov, teal zmz(3z'ias p.rjrpono'Xiu z£ dpXVS yzyzvvr)\ibvr)V . — Sozomen., 1. 3, Hist. Eccl., C. viii. 
f A town of Africa, in Tunis. 

% " Id enim eorum legati, quum se vinci animadverterent, postularunt." — Athanas., ad 
vitam sol. agentes, p. MO. 



188 



APPEALS. 



appeared spontaneously, but waited to be called to trial by our letters, as 
we summoned you in writing."* After this, no doubt can be entertained 
that the judgment emanated from a recognised tribunal. The details of 
the proceedings, as given in that letter, are such as constitute a trial. 
The accusations against Athanasius had been communicated in letters 
written by Eusebius and his adherents ; the crimes were stated for which 
he had been condemned at Tyre, on the report made by a committee of 
bishops which sat at Mareotis ; the records of that trial were presented by 
Martyrius and Hesychius on the part of the accusers, the chief of whom 
were absent by default ; Athanasius was heard in his defence ; a number 
of witnesses were examined, and a favorable sentence was pronounced, 
reinstating him in his episcopal dignity. At Mareotis the liberty of 
defence had been denied him, bis witnesses having been excluded, whilst 
his accuser alone was heard : " This we know," says the Pontiff, " not 
merely from his statement, but from the records of the acts brought by 
Martyrius and Hesychius • for, on reading them, we found that Ischyras, 
his accuser, was present, but that Macarius and Athanasius were not pre- 
sent, and that the priests of Athanasius were not admitted, though they 
earnestly demanded it. Dearly beloved, if indeed that trial were carried 
on fairly, it was necessary that not only the accuser, but the accused 
should be present."*}* Julius evidently had a just idea of the regular 
forms of trial. He felt, likewise, that in virtue of his office he could 
annul this irregular sentence, and that, if Athanasius were guilty, he 
could condemn him. The merits of the case had been canvassed, no less 
than the mode of proceeding. It was proved from the very records of the 
former trial, that the chief accuser, Ischyras, was convicted of perjury by 
his own witnesses. "Since, then," says Julius, "these things were 
brought forward, and so many witnesses appeared in behalf of Athana- 
sius, and he made so just a defence — what did it become us to do? — Was 
it not our duty to proceed according to the ecclesiastical canon ? Should 
w*e not, therefore, abstain from condemning the man, and rather admit 
and regard him as a bishop, as in truth he is He complains severely 
of the proceedings of the Orientals while the cause was pending before 
his tribunal ; the Eusebians having violently intruded Gregory into the 
See of Alexandria, without awaiting the decision: "For in the first 
place," he continues, " to speak candidly, it was not right that, when we 
had issued letters for the celebration of a synod, any one should antici- 



* " Saaque prgesentia pndefecit onines : non enim jadicio stetisset, nisi sai fidaciam 
habnisset, neqae sponte, sed litteris nostris ad jadiciam vocatas comparaisset, qaeinad- 
modnrn vos per litteras citayinias." — Jalii. Ep. apad Athanas., Ap. 2, p. 396. 

f " Oportebat aatem, dilectissimi, siqaidem sinceriter illad jadiciam agebatar, non 
solnm accasatorem, sed et ream praesentem sisti." — P. 394. 

J "An non qaod ecclesiastici canonis est ? hominemqae proinde non condemnaremas, 
sed potias reciperemas ?" — P. 395. 



APPEALS. 



189 



pate the judgment of the synod." He also intimates that the Eusebians 
themselves would have been put on trial, had they appeared, accusations 
having been formally presented against them ; and he accuses them of 
contumacy, and implied confession of guilt, in neglecting to appear to 
stand their trial.* 

This letter must satisfy impartial and discerning readers, that, at that 
period, the Bishop of Rome exercised real jurisdiction in the most im- 
portant causes, in whatever part of the world the parties resided, or 
whatever rank they occupied in the hierarchy. The exercise of his high 
authority is marked in almost every line. As guardian of the canons, he 
complains that the ecclesiastical law was violated. To him, as the divinely- 
constituted ruler of the whole Church, not only Athanasius and Mar- 
cellus, " but also many other bishops from Thrace, Ccelosyria, Phenicia, 
and Palestine," came, complaining of the wrongs which they had endured, 
and which had been inflicted on their respective churches. The plea 
which the Eusebians offered for filling the sees of Athanasius and Marcel- 
lus, could not be put forward to palliate the violence by which others were 
driven away from their bishoprics and country. " Suppose/' said Julius, 
" that Athanasius and Marcellus, as you Write, were removed from their 
sees, what can you say of the others, who, as I have said, have come 
hither from various places, both priests and bishops ? — for they also affirm 
that they have been driven away, and that they have suffered similar out- 
rages. ! beloved ! ecclesiastical trials are no longer conducted in con- 
formity with the Gospel, but with a view to banishment or death. If, as 
you say, they were absolutely guilty, the trial should have been carried on 
according to the canon, and not in that way. You should have first 
written to us all, so that what is just might be decreed by all. For they 
who suffered these things were bishops, and not of an ordinary Church, 
but of one which the apostles themselves had, by their labor, instructed 
in the faith. Why, then, have you neglected to write to us any thing, es- 
pecially concerning the city of Alexandria ? Do you not know that 

IT IS THE CUSTOM TO WRITE FIRST TO US, THAT WHAT IS JUST MAY BE 

determined ? Wherefore, if suspicions of that kind had fallen on the 
bishop there, it should have been reported to our Church. Now, after 
having done as they pleased, without informing us at all, they wish us to 
approve of their sentence of condemnation, in which we had no share. 
Such are not the ordinances of Paul— such is not the teaching of the 
fathers — but this is arrogance and innovation. I beseech you, hear me 
willingly : I write for the general advantage. I intimate to you what we 
have learned from the blessed apostle Peter : nor would I write things 



N * "Alacrius a vobis et sine recusatione occurrendum fuit, ne qui hactenus infainia isto- 
rum scelerum laborant, contumacia non comparendi in judicio, libellos contra se datos 
videantur refellere non potuisse." — Ibid. 



190 



APPEALS. 



which I am persuaded you know already, had not the transactions filled 
us with affliction." Accordingly, Julius recognised Athanasius in his 
episcopal rank, leaving the formal reversal of the sentence to take place 
after a re-hearing in presence of both parties, when a Council could be 
assembled. 

Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra, was of the number of those prelates, 
who successfully appealed to the superior authority of the Roman Bishop, 
for relief from the unjust judgment of an Eastern Council. Having re- 
paired to Borne, and for a long time awaited in vain the arrival of his 
accusers, he submitted to Julius a written exposition of his faith. His 
letter commences with these words : M Since some of those who were 
formerly condemned for heterodoxy, whom I exposed in the Council of 
Nice, have dared write against me to your Holiness, as if I did not enter- 
tain correct sentiments, conformable to the teaching of the Church, 
endeavoring to transfer to me their own fault, on this account I thought 
it necessary to repair to Borne, and suggest to you to send for those who 
wrote against me, that, on their appearing, I might confound them in 
both respects, by showing that what they have written against me is false, 
and that they themselves still continue in their original error, and are 
guilty of criminal machinations against the churches of God, and against 
us who preside over them ; but since they have declined to come, although 
you sent messengers after them, and I have waited a year and three entire 
months at Borne, I have thought it necessary, before my departure, to de- 
liver you the profession of faith, which I have written, in all sincerity, 
with my own hand, which I have learned, and in which I have been in- 
structed by the Divine Scriptures."* He concludes by requesting Julius 
to transmit a copy of this profession to the other bishops, that his ortho- 
doxy might thus be manifest. The Council of Sardica, in conformity 
with the judgment of Julius, acknowledged Marcellus and Athanasius as 
bishops in the communion of the Church. 

Socrates, a Greek historian of the fifth century, relates in the most em- 
phatic terms, the recourse of various bishops to the authority of the 
Pope: "At the same time (when Athanasius arrived) Paul also, the 
Bishop of Constantinople, Asclepas of Gaza, Marcellus of Ancyra, a city 
in Lesser Galatia, and Lucius of Hadrianople, each accused of a different 
offence, driven from their churches, reach the imperial city. When they 
had stated their case to Julius, Bishop of the Boman city, he, according 
to the prerogative of the Boman Church, sent them back into the East, 
bearing with them strong letters, and restored them to their sees, severely 
rebuking those who had rashly deposed them. They, accordingly, setting 
out from Borne, supported by the letters of the Bishop Julius, took 
possession of their churches, and sent the letters to those to whom they 



* Vide ep. Marcelli inter ep. Rom. Pont., Coustant, p. 390. 



APPEALS. 



191 



were directed."* Sozornen, speaking of the same bishops, says : " The Ro- 
man Bishop having taken cognizance of their various cases, and finding them 
all to harmonize in the Nicene faith, admitted them to his communion. 
And since, on account or the dignity of his see, the care of ALL 

BELONGED TO HIM, HE RESTORED EACH ONE TO HIS CHURCH, "f "With 

these facts before us, we cannot wonder at the avowal of Hallam : " The 
opinion of the Roman See's supremacy seems to have prevailed very 
much in the fourth century. Fleury brings remarkable proofs of this 
from the writings of Socrates, Sozornen, Ammianus Marcellinus, and 
9ptatus."J 

The restoration of so many Catholic bishops to their sees by the pon- 
tifical authority, was viewed with pain by the abettors of Arianism, who, 
in a conventicle held at Philippopolis in Thrace, combined to prevent it, 
and gave loose reins to their frenzy against Pope Julius :§ but the Coun- 
cil of Sardica, which was assembled at the same time, came to the support 
of his prerogative, and enacted canons to regulate the proceedings thence- 
forward in all cases of appeal. The holding of this Council was neces- 
sary for the formal reversal of the sentence of deposition, and to induce 
the Emperor Constantius to dispossess the Arian Gregory of the See of 
Alexandria, into which he had been intruded, and restore Athanasius. 
Accordingly, at the instance of Julius himself, || Constans, the Catholic 
emperor, urged his Arian brother to summon a Council, that the facts 
might be placed in their proper light, by a full rehearing of the case, in 
the presence of both parties. 

The fathers of this Council observe, that the accusers of Athanasius, 
though present at Sardica, "did not dare appear in the Council of the 
holy bishops; from which circumstance the justice of the judgment of 
our brother and fellow-bishop Julius most clearly appeared, who passed 
sentence not rashly, but after mature deliberation." In their letter to 
the Egyptian and African bishops, they mention the accusations against 
Athanasius, preferred to Julius, Bishop of the Roman Church, — the 
letters written to him in defence of the accused by bishops of various 
places — the summons issued to the Eusebians to appear, and their 
shrinking from the trial : whence they infer their guilt, — " because, being 
summoned by our beloved fellow-minister Julius, they did not present 
themselves for trial. ;; ^f In their first letter to the emperors, they implore 
them not to suffer the public officers to pass sentence on clergymen, or 
to molest the brethren, but to leave every one at liberty to follow the 



* Hist. Ecel., 1. ii. e. xv. f L. iii. Hist. Eccl., c. vii. 

J Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. vii. p. 270. 
g See Diss, de appellationibus, c. xiii., a Christiano Lupo. 
|| Sozornen, 1. iii., Hist., c. i. Socrates, 1. ii., Hist., c. xx. 
" Judieio non steterunt." 



192 



APPEALS. 



Catholic and apostolic faith, without being subject to the violence of per- 
secution. 

This Council bore the most splendid testimony to the privileges of the 
primacy. Osius proposed : " If any bishop be condemned in any cause, 
and thinks that his cause is good, and that a trial should again take place, 
if it meet your approbation, let us honor the memory of the holy apostle 
Peter, and let those who investigated the case, write to the Roman 
Bishop, and if he judge that a new trial be granted, let it be granted, 
and let him appoint judges. But if he judge that the cause is such that 
the proceedings should not be called in question, they shall be confirmed. 
Is this the will of all ? The synod answered : It is our will."* Gau- 
dentius, a bishop, then proposed that should an appeal be lodged to 
Rome, no bishop should be ordained in place of the deposed prelate : 
which was agreed to. These canons were adopted by the Council, and 
report was made of the whole proceedings to Julius, in a synodical letter, 
in which the title of HEAD is given to the see of the Apostle 
Peter, f 

Thus in this Council, held a few years after that of Nice, Osius being 
present at both, Rome is recognised as the See of Peter, and the mode of 
proceeding in ecclesiastical causes is regulated with a marked deference to 
its Bishop. He is acknowledged to be the head, and is requested to 
admonish by his letters all bishops not to communicate with those whom 
the Council had condemned. It has been sometimes said that the Coun- 
cil of Sardica granted the right of appeal j but this is inconsistent with 
the well-established fact, that appeals had been previously made and 
heard. A close inspection of the two canons that regard this matter will 
show, that recognising the right, they only regulated the mode of proceed- 
ing. The first enactment which they made on this subject, was intended 
to correct an abuse, not to confer a privilege. Before, a condemned 
bishop sometimes succeeded in obtaining a new trial from the bishops of 
the neighboring province. To prevent this, it was enacted that no new 
trial should be granted, unless by the special authority of the Holy See, 
who should appoint the judges. With regard to appeals to the Pope, 
" from the judgment of those bishops who belonged to the neighboring 
parts," the Council, at the suggestion of Gaudentius, decreed, that if a 
bishop " should proclaim that his cause should be heard in the city of 
Rome, another bishop, pending the appeal, should not by any means be 
ordained in the place of him who appears to be deposed, unless the cause 
be determined by the judgment of the Roman Bishop." This enactment 
supposes the right of appeal, and restrains the provincial bishops from 
proceeding to the ordination of a new bishop whilst it is pending. It de- 



* Sardic. Cone, can. iv. torn, i., Cone. Hard., col. 640. 

f Ep. Synod. Sardic, apud Hard. Col. Cone, torn. i. col. 653. 



% 

APPEALS. 193 

termines it to have the effect of suspending all provincial acts. The 
object is -manifest from the case of Athanasius, into whose see, whilst his 
cause was pending at Rome, Gregory had been intruded. Had the right 
of appeal been conferred by that Council, it would still be worthy of re- 
mark, that it was with a view to honor the chair of Peter ; and conse- 
quently it should be taken as an evidence of the primacy, the exercise of 
whose prerogatives it was designed to regulate, in a manner conformable 
to the interests of piety and peace, in the confidence that it would meet 
with the cordial approbation of the Pontiff. The influence of the Roman 
Bishop, had it at all originated in the greatness of the imperial city, 
must have been on the wane, ever since Constantine raised the new seat 
of empire at Byzantium. The prejudices of Constantius must have made 
him view with peculiar jealousy every new privilege of a bishop, the 
avowed and implacable enemy of Arianism, who had so lately sustained 
Athanasius against the Arian faction. The fathers of Sardica had been 
called together by the letters of this Arian emperor. Every thing, then, 
concurred to persuade them to diminish, rather than augment the pre- 
rogatives of Rome; and nothing could have induced them to recognise 
its superiority, or admit its rights, but the deep-rooted conviction that 
they were the rich inheritance bequeathed by the prince of the apostles to 
his successors. 

The exercise of the power of receiving appeals before the holding of this 
Council, proves that it was not derived from its enactments. It is a right 
which clearly flows from the office of Chief Bishop, and which must con- 
sequently be deemed of Divine institution. In giving to Peter the keys 
of His kingdom, Christ made him highest in authority, with a governing 
power over all ; and authorized him to bind all by his decrees ; or loose 
them, by reversing the sentences of his colleagues. This is not to be 
done capriciously, but justly, in conformity with the Divine law, and with 
a strict regard to the interests of the Church at large. The exercise of 
the power may vary, and may be regulated by the canons, with the assent 
of the Pontiff, with a view to order and harmony; but the power itself 
cannot be taken away or restricted by positive enactments, since it flows 
from a higher source — the will of Jesus Christ, who constituted Peter, 
under Himself, chief ruler and chief pastor. 

St. Basil is an illustrious witness of the exercise of the privileges of 
the primacy in absolving, on appeal, a bishop deposed in an Eastern 
synod. Eustathius of Sebaste, in Armenia, had, in various circumstances, 
professed Arianism, in consequence of which he was deposed from his see. 
In a letter to the Western bishops, Basil thus relates the artifice which he 
employed to recover his dignity : " Being cast out of his bishopric, from 
which he had been already deposed in Melitma, he thought on this plan 
of recovering his place, to undertake a journey to you. What things 
were proposed to him by the most blessed Liberius, and what he consented 

13 



194 



APPEALS. 



to, we know not : but he brought back with him a letter reinstating him, 
which being presented to the synod of Tyana,* he was restored to his 
place. "f No stronger evidence could be given of the papal authority. 
Liberius reversed the decree of an Oriental Synod, and restored the 
deposed bishop j in which exercise of authority another Synod acquiesced, 
even when there was strong reason to believe that the Pontiff had acted 
on false representations. 

St. Chrysostom sent to Innocent I. an embassy, consisting of four 
bishops and two deacons, to state plainly and clearly all the wrongs which 
he had suffered from the violence of Theophilus of Alexandria, and his 
abettors, and to obtain redress without delay. He shows that the Egyp- 
tian could have no authority in Thrace ; and implores the Pontiff to dis- 
play becoming fortitude and zeal for the remedy of these disorders : 
"Lest," he says, "'so great confusion should become general, I beseech 
you to write to the effect that these irregular proceedings, which were car- 
ried on in our absence, and from ex parte information, whilst we did not 
decline trial, are of no effect; as they are in fact null of themselves; and 
that the authors of these illegal measures shall be subjected to the penalty 
prescribed by the ecclesiastical laws. Grant, likewise, to us, who have 
not been convicted, reproved, or denounced as guilty of crime, the favor 
of your letters immediately, and your affection and that of all others as 
hitherto. "J 

In some manuscripts it is stated, that Chrysostom wrote in like terms 
to Venerius, Bishop of Milan, and Chromatius of Aquileja; but there is 
reason to believe, that this is an unauthorized observation of some one 
who supposed that the two letters addressed to these prelates, which are 
still extant, were written at this time, although their contents be different. 
If, however, it be admitted that Chrysostom addressed to them letters of 
the same tenor, it must have been as to the chief bishops of Italy, whose 
influence with the Pope was presumed to be great. 

Innocent, addressing the clergy of Constantinople, who had written to 
him on the same subject, pronounced the deposition of their bishop 
irregular, unjust, and void.§ This sentence was intended to replace 
Chrysostom in his station; it determined his right of possession, j| without 
deciding the merits of the case;^f for which maturer examination and 
more solemn judgment were desirable. The adverse parties were 
Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, and the Empress Eudoxia, supported 
by the emperor in her hostility to the stern reprover of her luxury and 
injustice. For this reason it was proper that the case should be fully 
examined in a Synod, in which the Pope, by his legates, should preside, 



* In INatolia. 

% Ep. iv. apud Coustant, col. 785. 
|] In possessorio. 



f Ep. cclxiii., alias lxxiv. 

$ Palladius in vita Chrysostomi : aforwas. 

% In petitorio et devolutive 



APPEALS. 195 

that the solemnity of the proceedings might conciliate respect for the final 
sentence. Innocent accordingly directed a Synod to be held at Thessa- 
lonica, saying that there was no other method of allaying the storm.* 
There was no want of authority on his part ; but the acts of the Council 
which had condemned Chrysostom, could not be rescinded with propriety, 
unless after a rehearing of the case, which it was desirable should be 
attended with equal solemnity. The aggrieved prelate, who, by providen- 
tial interposition, was in the mean time restored to his See, felt grateful 
for the kind solicitude of the Pontiff, whose protection he still implored. 
" You continue," he says, " to imitate excellent pilots, who are most 
attentive when they see the waves raised up, the sea swelling, the waters 
rushing, and thick darkness in the midst of day."")" He represents Inno- 
cent as manifesting more than parental benevolence and affection in his 
efforts to relieve him. Thus did the bishop of the imperial city acknow- 
ledge and implore the superior power of the successor of Peter. The 
Alexandrian Patriarch likewise recognised it, by sending ambassadors to 
support his sentence before the pontifical tribunal. J 



§ 2.— AFRICAN CONTROVERSY. 

In the early part of the fifth century, the most splendid testimonies 
were rendered by the Bishops of Africa to the authority of the Holy See, 
which they acknowledged to be derived from the Divine Scriptures : yet, 
at that very time, a controversy arose between them and Pope Zosimns, 
on the subject of appeals, which is now brought forward to prove that 
they did not admit his supremacy. We have already heard the complaints 
of St. Cyprian concerning clergymen, who, by having recourse to a dis- 
tant tribunal, sought to escape from the just sentence of their bishops. 
The like dissatisfaction was felt by Aurelius, who occupied the See of the 
Martyr at the time of which we now speak, and by the African Bishops 
generally ; so that in a numerous Council held at Carthage, in the year 
418, canons were enacted with a view to remedy what was felt to be an 
abuse. It was decreed that clerical causes, with the consent of the 
diocesan, might undergo a rehearing before neighboring bishops; or, by 
way of appeal, might come under the cognizance of a provincial Council, 
or of the primate of the province. In order effectually to preclude any 
appeal of clergymen to a tribunal beyond the seas — that is, to the Bishop 
of Rome — the prelates agreed that any such appellant should not 
be received to communion by any of their number. The appeal of 
Apiarius, a priest excommunicated by Urban, Bishop of Sicca, brought 
matters to a crisis. Zosimus immediately despatched Faustinus, an 



* T. L, ep. Rom. Pontif., col. 799. f Ep. xi. col. 810. 

J T. L, ep. R. P., 804. 



196 



APPEALS. 



Italian bishop, with two priests, as papal legates, commissioned to rein- 
state the appellant, to excommunicate the bishop, in case he persisted 
in disregarding the appeal, or to send him to Rome for trial, and to 
regulate all future appeals after the manner prescribed by the Council of 
Nice : the Pontiff thus designating the canons of Sardica, because thej 
were added to those of Nice in the manuscript of the Roman Church.* 
In May, 419, a Council of two hundred and seventeen bishops, assembled 
at Carthage, received the legates, who delivered to them in writing the 
Apostolic mandates. The canons referred to were wholly unknown to the 
prelates, who, however, pledged themselves to observe them, until such 
time as their authenticity could be ascertained, by consulting the archives 
of the great Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople. Faus- 
tinus urged that, to avoid all appearance of strife, the prelates should 
rather address the Holy See directly, and seek from it the desired in- 
formation ) which they readily agreed to, without, however, abandoning 
their intention of sending commissioners to the other churches. The case 
of Apiarius was settled by his removal to another diocese, and the apparent 
contumacy of Urban was satisfactorily accounted for, so that, after some 
warm debate, harmony succeeded. "We know, however, from St. Augus- 
tin, that Urban himself visited Rome,f most probably with a view to 
explain his conduct to the Pontiff. The appeal of a priest was the im- 
mediate occasion of the Pontifical interposition ; but it prompted Zosimus 
to put the whole matter of appeals on a proper basis. The canons which 
he cited, left clergymen at liberty to appeal from the sentence of their 
diocesan to neighboring bishops, without making mention of the Bishop of 
Rome ; and a similar enactment is ascribed to the Council of Carthage, 
held in the preceding year. Hence surprise is expressed that Zosimus 
should rely on the canon as sanctioning the appeals of clergymen to the 
Apostolic See; and that the African fathers should admit it only pro- 
visionally. The Pope, indeed, did not labor to prove from it his right to 
receive the appeals of clergymen, concerning which the plenitude of his 
authority suffered him to entertain no question ; but he meant to show the 
right of appeal to neighboring bishops, which was recognised by the Sar- 
dican canons. The right of appeal was restricted by the African prelates 
to provincial Councils, or at least to the primates of the province, since 
the consent of the diocesan was requisite for the rehearing of the case 
before neighboring bishops, whilst the canon of Sardica recognised the 
right without any such restriction. The grievance of which Apiarius had 
complained, was, that the sentence of Urban could not be reversed by 
a neighboring prelate without the consent of the diocesan. Zosimus 
wished to throw open a door by which an injured priest could obtain 



* Cod. Iustelli, apud Ballerin., t. iii., oper. S. Leon, p. 59. Also, apud Bened., in not. 
ad ep. Zos., xv. 
f Aug. ep. cclxiii. 



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197 



redress, without awaiting the celebration of a provincial Council, or de- 
pending on the judgment and good pleasure of the Primate alone. By 
introducing the Sardican canon, the necessity of appealing to the Holy 
See in ordinary cases would have been removed, and a fruitful occasion of 
murmurs avoided;' but the African fathers were apprehensive that so 
great facility of appeal would unsettle discipline, loose the bonds of au- 
thority, and lead to relaxation and disorder. 

The appeals of bishops, although not at all controverted when this dis- 
cussion first arose, came under consideration in consequence of the wish 
of the Pope to have the canons put into full operation. It had always 
been customary for African bishops to appeal to Kome, as is gathered 
from St. Cyprian and St. Augustin ; but the mode prescribed at Sardica, 
of trying the appeal by delegated judges, appears to have been new to the 
Africans, who complained that the bearing of the legate Faustinus savored 
of imperiousness. For this reason they gave the same qualified and pro- 
visional adhesion to the canon regarding episcopal appeals; and when the 
inquiry, apparently, resulted unfavorably to the authenticity of the 
decrees, the bishops* who addressed Celestine, in the year 425, extended 
their remonstrances to episcopal appeals, and earnestly besought him not 
to receive them easily, nor to send legates into Africa, whose demeanor 
might exhibit in the Church the pride of secular domination. 

I have thus endeavored to unravelf this somewhat intricate controversy, 
and to gather from the documents, which are apparently discordant, a nar- 
rative that may be consistent in itself, and reconcilable with their testi- 
mony. The appeal of Apiarius, a priest, being the immediate occasion of 
dispute, and the African canon expressly regarding the appeals of priests, 
or inferior clergymen, we are bound to consider the main controversy as 
confined to such appeals ; and the mode and form of episcopal appeals con- 
nected with it only incidentally. 

The misnomer of the canons by Zosimus greatly embarrassed the dis- 
cussion, and emboldened the prelates, in their letter to Celestine, to assume 
a tone which they were not wont to use in addressing the successor of 
Peter. We may not now easily conceive how canons which were passed 
at Sardica in 347, should, after seventy years, be ascribed, especially by 
the highest dignitary of the Church, to a Council which was held in 325 : 
but as many of the Nicene prelates, and especially Hosius, their leader, were 
present at Sardica, it is not strange that their decrees should have been 
added to the roll of the proceedings at Nice, and preserved with them in the 
Roman archives, and thus, in process of time, have become identified fc and 



* The names of Augustin, and several others of the former Council, do not appear 
among them : so that the stress which Mr. Palmer and others lay on his authority, is 
•without foundation in fact. He partook, but in a most conciliatory spirit, of the earlier 
proceedings. 

f See Diss, ii., de Africanae Eccl. Rom. appell., c. xxviii., a Cbristiano Lupo. 



198 



APPEALS. 



confounded with them. "Very ancient manuscripts show this to have been 
the fact ; and Innocent I., who preceded Zosimus, refers, in several passa- 
ges,* to the Sardican canons under the title of Nicene, loudly professing that 
the Catholic Church follows no other canons than those adopted at Nice.")" 
In the scarcity of manuscripts, it was no easy matter to trace the mistake 
to its origin, and to distinguish the sources of decrees, which came down 
recommended by the same authority. The Council of the Arians, held at 
Philippopolis, which had assumed the name of Sardican,J had rendered 
this title invidious, and thus served to involve the proceedings of the 
Catholic prelates in obscurity. The report of the African commissioners, 
that the alleged canons were not found in the great churches, left the Pope 
in the embarrassing situation of one who had failed to substantiate his au- 
thorities ; of which circumstance the African bishops did not neglect to 
avail themselves : yet their tone was evidently moderated by the feeling 
that he whom they addressed, might still do, independently of all positive 
legislation, that which he had sought to do with the support of the canons 
of a General Council. Greeting him reverentially as " Lord brother," 
they say : " We earnestly entreat you not easily to give ear hereafter to 
such as come hence, nor any more to receive to communion persons 
excommunicated by us." 

It is sometimes imagined that in this controversy Zosimus brought for- 
ward the canons as the ground of his claim ; but this is wholly incorrect. 
He did not address any document on this subject to the African fathers, 
but he sent his legates with instructions how to act, ordering them to re- 
instate Apiarius, and to procure such enactments by the Council as would 
harmonize with the canons, and with established usage. In referring to 
these, he was not pointing to the source of his own authority : he was 
simply marking out a general plan of proceeding in ecclesiastical causes, 
approved of by the wisdom of a venerable assembly. No one could assert 
the supreme authority of his see in terms stronger than those which in the 
preceding year he had employed, when addressing the African fathers in 
relation to the appeal of Celestius from the sentence of a former Council. 
Although the appeals of priests, in personal causes, were generally dis- 
countenanced, no objection was made, even by the African Bishops, to an 
appeal from a doctrinal decision j matters of faith being always considered 
as inter causas major es, belonging of right to the cognizance of the Holy 
See : but as the appeal of Celestius lay dormant for some years, in con- 
sequence of his neglect to follow it up, and the doctrinal points had been 
defined by Innocent, the prelates complained that Zosimus had permitted 
the case to be re-opened. On being informed that he had determined on 
absolving the heresiarch, if within two months his accusers did not 
establish his heterodoxy, they assembled in Council, in order to com- 



* Ep. ad Victricium Rothom. f Ep. xxv., ad Constant, clerum et pop. 

J Aug. 1. in., contra Cresconium, c. xxxiv. 



APPEALS. 



199 



municate to him, in the most solemn manner, their views of the wiles of 
Celestius. His answer commences with the most ample declaration of 
pontifical supremacy, of which, among other things, he says : " For 
canonical antiquity, and the very promise of Christ our God, have given 
to this apostle (Peter) such power over the sentences of all, that he can 
loose what is bound, and bind what is loose; and equal power has been 
given to those who, through his favor, have been made worthy to inherit 
his see."* 

It is an error to suppose that the African Bishops made their submis- 
sion depend on the result of the inquiry as to the authenticity of the 
canons. Through respect for the pontifical authority, they submitted at 
once in the particular case in question, and suffered Apiarius to re-enter 
on the exercise of sacred functions, although they were convinced that he 
had deceived Zosimus. The same feeling prompted them to pledge them- 
selves to the observance of the rules proposed, during the interval to be 
employed in the inquiry. The cause why they reserved to themselves the 
liberty to act otherwise in the contingency that the canons could not be 
verified, was because the Pontiff, not urging his own authority in the ab- 
stract, professed only a desire to enforce their observance; and he was 
justly presumed not to wish to interfere ^ith national usages and laws, 
beyond what zeal for canonical discipline required. 

The relapse of Apiarius into crime presented, after a few years, an 
occasion for renewing the controversy about appeals, the unfortunate 
delinquent having again sought shelter under the authority of Borne. 
The legate, believing him to be persecuted, and conceiving it to be a duty 
to vindicate the Apostolic privileges assailed in his person, acted with the 
zeal of an advocate, rather than with the impartiality of a judge, on his 
trial in the Council convened for that purpose. When the minds of the 
fathers were considerably excited, and the charities which should be mu- 
tually cherished by them and the representative of the Holy See, were 
endangered, remorse seized on the wretched man, who, in the presence of 
all, acknowledged his guilt, and implored mercy. Thus his case was, at 
length, brought to an issue ; which, however, emboldened the bishops to 
persevere in their opposition to the appeals, seeing that these served to 
screen the guilty from punishment. This involved no question as to the 
supreme authority of the Holy See, which, in each particular case, was 
respected and obeyed, even when its exercise was deemed a grievance. 
Hence they confined themselves to remonstrance, and laid before the Pon- 
tiff the inconveniences and disorders attendant on the practice, without 
denying the abstract right, which, on the contrary, they pre-supposed, by 
expostulating against its undue exercise. 

Bishops in Africa, as well as in other parts of the Church, had always 



* See p. 140. 



200 



APPEALS. 



exercised the right of appeal, as we learn from a letter of St. Augustin tc 
Celestine, written about the year 423, after the controversy about appeals 
had long been agitated. Anthony, Bishop of Fussala, a diocese formed 
out of that of Hippo, had been removed from its government by St. 
Augustin, without being deposed from the episcopate. Having appealed 
to Boniface, and gained the support of the primate of the province, who 
gave him commendatory letters, he succeeded in obtaining a favorable 
rescript, qualified, however, with the proviso, if the facts were such as he 
had represented. To verify them would have required a formal examina- 
tion in an ecclesiastical assembly. Without this preliminary proceeding 
he undertook, with the aid of the civil power, to recover possession of his 
see, and thus scandalized the faithful. In the letter addressed to Celes- 
tine, the successor of Boniface, Augustin does not at all controvert the 
right of appeal j but he seeks to take away the ground on which Anthony 
relied, namely, that removal from the charge of a diocese could not take 
place without degradation from the episcopal office ; and points to three 
recent instances in which the Apostolic See had pronounced similar sen- 
tences, or had confirmed sentences which had emanated from inferior tri- 
bunals. " There are," he says, " examples of some who, for certain 
faults, were neither stripped of the episcopal dignity, nor left altogether 
unpunished, the Apostolic See itself having pronounced sentence, or con- 
firmed the sentences of others. Not to go back to very ancient instances, 
I shall mention some that are recent."* The confirmation of a sentence 
supposes that the case had been brought by appeal to the higher tribunal. 
There is no foundation for the assertion that these instances took place 
during the interval of inquiry, when the bishops had pledged themselves 
to observe the canons proposed by Zosimus : there is no probability in the 
supposition that the ancient examples were to be sought out of Africa : 
there is no reason for tracing them to the Sardican enactments, which 
were unknown in those churches. Augustin, speaking of a still remoter 
period, observed, that Cecilian could well disregard the proceedings of the 
conventicle of Tigisis against him, and await the examination of his case 
by the church beyond the sea, where, if his adversaries refused to appear, 
they would, by their own act, cut themselves off from the communion of 
the world. f This supposes that it was customary to have trials by the 
Pontiff, on appeal, long before the Council of Sardica was held. 

From the whole proceedings and documents, it is clear, that the power 
of the Pope to receive appeals was not at all called in question ; much 
less was his primacy disputed, which, on the contrary, was eminently dis- 
played in the doctrinal decisions of Innocent and Zosimus, hailed with 
acclamation by the African Councils, and by the whole Christian world. 
The complaints of the fathers, which originally regarded the appeals of 



* Ep. ccix., alias cclx. Aug. Caslest. 



f Ep. clxii. 



APPEALS. 



201 



clergymen, in cases of a mere personal character, afterwards embraced the 
form of proceeding in episcopal appeals, and finally the appeals them- 
selves ; but notwithstanding the disorders which arose from the abuse of 
the privilege, the right and power were never controverted. Subsequent 
usage continued to correspond with the earlier examples, and accordingly 
we find Leo despatching Potentius to Africa, that he might on the spot 
examine the case of the Bishop Lupicinus, who had invoked the pontifical 
authority.* St. Gregory the Great directed the Bishop of Numidia to 
investigate the case of Donadeus, deposed by Victor, and to treat the pre- 
late with canonical severity, if he should be found to have acted 
unjustly.f 

3.— MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES. 

In the year 443, St. Leo had occasion to exercise the right of receiving 
appeals in the case of Chelidonius, deposed in a Council at which St. Hilary 
of Aries presided. Writing to the bishops of the province of Yienne, he 
confidently referred to immemorial custom as authorizing him to decide at 
Rome, on appeal, causes originating in Gaul, and to reverse the sentence 
of the Gallic prelates, contrary to the pretensions of Hilary, who con- 
tended that the Pope should appoint judges to review the cause in the pro- 
vince where it was first tried : " You, brethren," said Leo, "will acknow- 
ledge with us that the Apostolic See, in virtue of the reverence due to it, 
has been consulted by the priests of your province likewise, in innu- 
merable instances ; and that in various cases of appeals, conformably to 
ancient custom, the decisions were either rescinded or confirmed. "J 
Accordingly, he overruled the objections of Hilary, restored Chelidonius 
to his see, and obtained a rescript of Yalentinian III., that his decree 
might have civil force, and be put in execution. 

The right of hearing appeals was fully acknowledged in the time of St. 
Gregory the Great. Sending a " defender" into Spain, he directed him to 
examine the case of Januarius, who had been deposed, and if he found 
him innocent, to reinstate him in his bishopric, to hand over to his au- 
thority the intruder, that he might be confined, or sent to the Pontiff, and 
to subject the bishops who had pronounced the unjust sentence, to penance 
in a monastery, and deprive them of holy communion for six months. § 
On this case, in conjunction with another, Guizot remarks : " The power 
of the Papacy in Spain was so real, that in 603 two Spanish bishops, 
Januarius of Malaga and Stephen, having been irregularly deposed, 
Gregory the Great sent a commissary, named John, with orders to investi- 
gate the matter; and without assembling any Council, without looking 



* Ep. xii., ad ep. Afrie. 

J Ep. x., ad ep. per prov. Vien. 



f L. xii., ep. viii. 
$ L. xiii., ep. xlv. 



202 



APPEALS. 



for the assent of the Spanish clergy, John declared the deposition irregu- 
lar, annulled it, and reinstated the two bishops, thus exercising the acts 
of the most extensive supremacy."* 

We have elsewhere seen that Eutyches, when condemned by Flavian, 
in the Synod of Constantinople, had recourse to Leo, falsely alleging that 
he had lodged an appeal, which shows that the right of appeal existed. 
Flavian himself, being unjustly condemned by Dioscorus, in the tumultu- 
ous assembly of Ephesus, put into the hands of the apostolic legates an 
appeal against the iniquitous sentence. f The Pope annulled the acts, 
recognised Flavian as of his communion, and cautioned the people of 
Constantinople against receiving any other bishop in his lifetime. J Gela- 
sius, speaking of the appeal of Flavian and Chrysostom, says : " The 
Apostolic See, by not consenting to the sentence, absolved them."§ The 
American editor of Mosheim's Church History observes, that u Flavian 
before his death appealed to Leo ; and this appeal, pursued by the Pontiff, 
occasioned the Council in which Eutyches was condemned, and the san- 
guinary Dioscorus deposed." || 

Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, was condemned in the false Council of 
Ephesus, but, like Flavian, he appealed to the just judgment and high 
authority of the Apostolic See. Writing to Leo, he says : u I await the 
sentence of the Apostolic See, and I implore and entreat your Holiness to 
succor me, who appeal to your righteous and just tribunal." He adds, 
that "this most Holy See has, on many accounts, the principality over all 
the churches throughout the universe."^ He asks a command to present 
himself at Rome, that he may there render an account of his faith. Leo 
recognised his orthodoxy, annulled the sentence pronounced against him, 
and restored him to his see. " Blessed be our God," says he in a letter 
addressed to Theodoret, "whose invincible truth, according to the judg- 
ment of the Apostolic See, has shown you to be clear of all taint of 
heresy."** When the bishop presented himself at the Council of Chalce- 
don, he was hailed by the fathers : " Let the most reverend Bishop 
Theodoret enter in, to partake in the proceedings of the Synod, since the 
most holy Archbishop Leo has restored him to the bishopric. "ft In the 
course of the proceedings, the formal action of the Council was asked, 
that he might be put into actual possession of his see, conformably to the 
pontifical decree, or, as the acts express it, " that he might receive his 
church, as the most holy Archbishop Leo has judged." J J The bishops 



* Cours d' Histoire Moderne, t. iii. p. 66. 

f Leo., ep. xliv., Ball. edit. col. 915, Liberates, cap. xii. 

% Ep. xliv. et xlv. § Ep. xiii. 

|| Church History, p. 2, c. v. p. 152. Note. 

^[ Ep. cxiii. ad Leon. Also ep. cxvi., inter lit. Theodoret. 

•** Ep. cxx., Ball, edit, col. 1226. ff Act i. %% Act viii. 



APPEALS. 



203 



with acclamation assented : " Theodoret is worthy of his see." " Leo 
has judged conformably to the Divine judgment."* 

John Talaja was raised to the chair of Alexandria, in the decline of 
the fifth century. Acacius, the heretical Bishop of Constantinople, con- 
trived to draw down on him the anger of the Emperor Zeno, who 
banished him from his see, and substituted Peter Mongus in his place. 
Calendion, Bishop of Antioch, to which city he fled, advised him to seek 
redress from Simplicius, Bishop of Rome, to whom he gave him letters of 
recommendation. Liberatus, a writer of the sixth century, relates that 
" having got letters of intercession from Calendion, Patriarch of Antioch, 
he appealed to the Roman Pontiff, as the blessed Athanasius had done. ;; f 
The Pope, recognising the justice of his cause, endeavored to have him 
restored, since the pontifical decree for that purpose could not be execu- 
ted without the imperial concurrence; and his successor, Felix III., 
finding the obstacles insuperable, gave him the administration of Nola, 
a bishopric in Italy, without taking from him his title of patriarch. A 
priest named Solomon, degraded by Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople, 
appealed to the same Pontiff, who wrote to the clergy of that city, in- 
structing them to treat him as a brother. 

Barrow admits numerous cases of appeal : " Thus did Marcion go to 
Rome, and sue for communion there. So Fortunatus and Felicissimus, in 
St. Cyprian, being condemned in Africk, did fly to Rome for shelter, of 
which absurdity St. Cyprian doth so complain. So likewise Martianus 
and Basilides, in St. Cyprian, being ousted of their sees, for having lapsed 
from the Christian profession, did fly to Stephen for succor to be restored. 
So Maximus (the Cynic) went to Rome to get a confirmation of his elec- 
tion at Constantinople. So Marcellus, being rejected for heterodoxy, 
went thither to get attestation to his orthodoxy, (of which St. Basil com- 
plaineth.) So Apiarius, being condemned in Africk for his crimes, did 
appeal to Rome. And on the other side, Athanasius being with great 
partiality condemned by the Synod of Tyre ; Paulus and other bishops 
being extruded from their sees for orthodoxy ; St. Chrysostom being con- 
demned and expelled by Theophilus and his accomplices ) Flavianus being 
deposed by Dioscorus, and the Ephesine Synod; Theodoret being con- 
demned by the same, — did cry out for help from Rome. Chelidonius, 
Bishop of Besancon, being deposed by Hilarius of Aries, (for crimes,) 
did fly to Pope Leo. Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, being ex- 
truded from his see by Photius, did complain to the Pope. "J 

The authority of the Holy See to receive appeals, from any quarter of 
the Church, was strongly asserted by Pope G-elasius. Answering the 
objection of Euphemius, Bishop of Constantinople, who alleged that 



* Ibidem. 

f Breviarium controversiarum Nestorianee et Eutychianse, c. xviii. 
% Suppos. v. n. 12. 



204 



APPEALS. 



Acacius was uncanonically condemned, because no Council had been sum- 
moned to investigate his case, as its importance seemed to demand, he says : 
" They object to us the canons, which they violate, whilst they refuse to 
obey the first see, that asks nothing of them but what is just and right. 
The canons direct that appeals of the whole Church should be made to 
this see, and no appeal should lie from it, so that it should judge the 
whole Church, and itself be judged by none, and no one should revise its 
judgments."* It is not probable that language so strong would have 
been used by the Pontiff to the Bishop of the imperial city, if it admitted 
of contradiction. To the Bishops of Dardania he wrote : " The whole 
Church, throughout the world, knows that the See of blessed Peter the 
apostle has the right to loose what has been bound by the sentences of 
any bishops, since it has power to judge every church. "f 



* Apud Fleury, L xxx. § xxviii. 

| Ep. vii., ad episcopos Dardanite, anno 495, t. ii., coll. Hard. coll. 909. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



§ 1. — BRITONS. 

The special interest attached at present to the " Church of England/' 
may justify a distinct review of the relations of the ancient Britons and 
of the Anglo-Saxons to the Holy See. The existence of Christianity in 
Britain in the decline of the second century, is known from the testimo- 
nies of Tertullian,* Origen,f and Arnobius.j Bede, doubtless on the 
authority of ancient documents or tradition, states that in the time of 
the Emperor Aurelius, Lucius, a British king, sent to Eleutherius, 
Bishop of Rome, to ask for instructors in the Christian law.§ That 
there is a great weight of authority for this statement, is admitted 
by an unfriendly reviewer of Dr. Milner's History of Winchester. 
" The truth is," says Dr. M., " all our original writers, British, as 
well as Saxon and Norman, || together with the records of our ancient 
abbeys, the martyrologies and histories of foreign countries, and 
existing manuscripts of the most ancient date, (to say nothing of coins,) 
prove that the first Christian king reigned in our island, as the first Chris- 
tian emperor was afterwards born in it."^f The attempt of Dr. Burgess 
to ascribe the origin of the British churches to St. Paul, is wholly unsup- 
ported by proof, and purely visionary.** In the absence of evidence, we 
cannot say positively how the succession of bishops was provided for, 
from the first arrival of those whom Elutherius despatched to Lucius; 
but it was no doubt according to some plan originally adopted with pon- 
tifical sanction. It is not improbable that the British churches may have 
been immediately dependent for ordination on the See of Aries, whose 



* Adv. Judaeos, p. 189. f Horn, vi., in Luc. c. i. 

X In Ps. cxlvii. \ L. i., Hist. Eccl. Angl. 

|1 Gildas, Nennius, Bede, Asserius, Malmesbury. 
If Postscript to History of Winchester. 

** See its complete refutation in the History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Sixon 
Church, by John Lingarcl, D.D., vol. i. app., a. London, 1845. I avail myself freely of. 
this valuable work. 

205 



206 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



bishop, from very ancient times, was clothed with the powers of Yicar 
Apostolic ; which is the more likely as the civil prefect of Gaul embraced 
Britain in the sphere of his jurisdiction. Augustin received episcopal 
consecration from that prelate. The Bishops of London, York, and 
Lincoln, were present at the Council of Aries in 314, in which a splendid 
testimony was rendered to the primacy, and other British prelates at the 
Council of Sardica, so justly celebrated for its decrees regarding appeals 
to the Pontiff. Three were also at Rimini, whose poverty obliged them 
to avail themselves of the provision made by the emperor for their 
support whilst in attendance.* The communion of the British bishops 
with the Holy See is evident from their presence in the two former 
Councils. In the last they shared the misfortune of the others, who 
were beguiled by the artifices of the Arians. 

The exercise of the pontifical authority in Britain for the extirpation 
of the Pelagian heresy, is attested by an unexceptionable witness, St. 
Prosper, a native of Gaul, contemporary with St. Germanus, and secre- 
tary of Pope Celestine : " At the instance of the deacon Palladius, Pope 
Celestine sends Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, in his own stead, in 
order that he might drive out the heretics, and guide the Britons to the 
Catholic faith. Elsewhere he says : " With no less solicitude he freed 
Britain from this disease, when he banished from that remote island cer- 
tain enemies of grace, natives of the country, and having ordained a 
bishop for the Scots (Irish,) whilst he labors to preserve a Roman island 
in the Catholic faith, he made even a barbarous island Christian. "J 
Britain is here called Roman, because subjected by the Roman arms; 
whilst Ireland is styled barbarian, as being beyond the limits of the em- 
pire. The enthusiasm with which Germanus and Lupus of Troyes, his 
companion, were received by the Britons, and the success of their mis- 
sion, prove that the authority of the Roman Bishop, in whose name they 
appeared, was fully recognised. Constantius, a priest of Lyons, who 
wrote the Life of St. Germanus, about fifty or sixty years after this 
event, relates their mission in detail; as also Venerable Bede, guided by 
the tradition and monuments of the British churches. The discipline of 
the Britons became subsequently relaxed, and their ecclesiastical position 
was scarcely discernible after the separation of their island from the em- 
pire : but a glimpse of it is afforded us by Gildas, a British author, who 
wrote about the middle of the sixth century, in his complaints of the am- 
bition of some clergymen, who traversed lands and seas for its gratifica- 
tion, and on their return made parade of their authority. This plainly 
has reference to Rome, as the source of ecclesiastical dignity. § The suc- 
cession of bishops was maintained down to the time of Augustin, the 



* Sulp. Sev., Hist., p. 401. 
J Contra Cassian, c. xli. 



f In chronico ad an. 429. 
§ Hist. Gild., p. 76. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



207 



missionary despatched to England by St. Gregory the Great. Those who 
assert the original independence of the British churches, and their 
autocephalous character, forget their Roman origin, the presence of 
their prelates in Councils in which the prerogatives of 4he Holy See were 
distinctly recognised, and the interposition of Pope Celestine to extirpate 
the heresy of Pelagius, through his envoy Germanus. Our ignorance of 
the arrangement by which the succession of bishops was* provided for, 
does not warrant any inference adverse to the primacy, since any mode 
originally sanctioned by the Pontiff was a sufficient exercise of his right ; 
and the fact that the Britons continued in his communion proves that 
their ordination had received his approval. In the Council of Ephesus 
the Bishops of the island of Cyprus contested the claims of the Patriarch 
of Antioch to control their ordinations, asserting that their predecessors 
had performed them from the beginning without his interference: which 
fact being controverted, the fathers of the Council confined themselves to 
a general decree, that the ancient usages and privileges of the various 
churches should be respected. This case, although frequently alleged in 
support of British independence, is not of any advantage to those who 
urge it, as long as the fact of the Britons having exercised a free power 
of ordination, without recourse to Rome, is not established. Were it, 
however, conceded that the British ordinations were performed without 
any reference to the Pope, or his Vicar, it would only show that the free- 
dom of the Britons on this point should have been respected, unless most 
weighty reasons required a change of system. If relaxation and immo- 
rality ensued from this " domestic ordination" and partial independence, 
the great interests of religion, which far outweigh ecclesiastical privileges, 
w r ould authorize the chief pastor, who is charged with the care of all the 
churches, to interpose, and reserve to himself the choice or approbation 
of those who thenceforward should be raised to the responsible office of 
bishops. Whatever may have been the usage in this respect, it is wrong 
to infer from it the entire independence of the Britons, since the enjoy- 
ment of special privilege does not necessarily imply exemption from all 
authority. Well does Mr. Allies say : " There can be no independence, 
strictly so called, in the Church and body of Christ."* 

A document was first produced by Spelman, in the year 1639, purport- 
ing to be an address of the Abbot Dinoth, on behalf of the British 
bishops, to Augustin, the missionary of Gregory the Great, who urged 
them to submit to his authority, he being vested by the Pope with the 
powers of archbishop. It is unnecessary to expose in detail the reasons 
for regarding it as a forgery, especially as Fuller, the Protestant historian, 



* Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 120. 
f Spelman, Cone, t. i. p. 108. 



208 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



abandons its defence: "Let it shift as it can for its authenticates.?.''* 
After a feeble effort to account for a glaring anachronism, he is compelled 
by its modern phraseology to make this avowal: "A late Papist much 
impugneth the credit of this manuscript (as made since the dayes of 
King Henry the Eighth,) and cavilleth at the Welsh thereof, as modern, 
and full of false spelling. He need not have used so much violence to 
wrest it out of our hands, who can part with it without considerable loss 
to ourselves, or gain to our adversaries; for it is but a breviate, or ab- 
stract of those passages which in Bede, and other authours, appear most 
true, of the British refusing subjection to the See of Rome. Whilest, 
therefore, the chapter is canonicall, it matters not if the contents be 
apoeri/pha (as the additions of some wel-meaning scribe.) And though 
this Welsh be far later than the days of Aebot Dinoth, and 
the English later than the Welsh; yet the Latin, as ancienter than 
both,"}* containeth nothing contrary to the sense of all authours, which 
write this intercourse between Augustine and the Welsh nation." The 
forgery of this document was detected by Tuberville, and is now generals- 
admitted, as Dr. Lingard testifies. J 

It is untrue that the document in question harmonizes with the state- 
ments of Bede, " the only real authority which we possess." He does 
not say a word of any pretensions of the Britons to independence of 
Borne ; but he merely states that they refused to acknowledge Augustin 
for their archbishop, because he did not rise to receive them as they 
approached, which neglect a hermit had disposed them to look on as a 
token of an imperious and domineering temper. § The apprehension of 
the severity of his government is the only cause assigned for their de- 
clining to recognise him. This refusal is easily reconcilable with the 
abstract admission of the power of the Pontiff, in whose name he 
appeared, since men are slow to admit a painful exercise of authority. 
Gregory, however, had not made the consent of the Britons a necessary 
condition for the exercise of metropolitical rights by his envoy, but in 
the consciousness of the power with which he was clothed by divine 
appointment, he bade him use them freely for the interests of piety : 
" We commit the care of all the British bishops to you, brother, that 
the unlearned may be instructed, the weak strengthened by advice, and 
the perverse corrected with authority." || 



* The Church History of Britain Endeavored, by Thomas Fuller. London, 1656. 
P. 61. 

f Spelman says that he added it for the use of foreigners : it was not in the manu- 
script. 

% Anglo-Saxon Church, vol. i. p. 71. Note. 

g Bede, 1. ii., Hist, c. ii. || Ep. lxiv. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



209 



I 2.— ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH. 

We need not discuss more fully the question of the independence of 
the British churches, since the Church of the Anglo-Saxons was a purely 
papal creation, having been founded, organized, and fostered by the 
Popes. Augustin, the envoy of Gregory, acted in all things by his 
direction, and with entire dependence on him. When he failed to con- 
ciliate the Britons, abandoning them to the punishments which their dis- 
orders called down from heaven, he foretold that the sword of the enemy 
would execute the divine judgments on them, as took place after his death. 
In the mean time he pursued his apostolic mission among the Anglo- 
Saxons, and succeeded in laying the foundations of that illustrious edifice, 
which afterwards rose in fair proportions, with the admiration of the 
Catholic world. He fixed his See in Canterbury. Gregory, in sending 
him the pallium, the emblem of metropolitical power, admonished him 
that he must not consider himself as authorized to encroach on the juris- 
diction of the bishops of Gaul, his power being limited to the British 
prelates. " We give you no authority over the Bishops of Gaul, because 
from the ancient times of my predecessors, the Bishop of Aries received 
the pallium, whom we must not deprive of the authority with which he is 
invested."* "You, brother/' says the Apostolic mandate, -'will, 
moreover, have subject to you not only the bishops whom you or the 
Bishop of York may ordain, but all the bishops of Britain, by authority 
of our God, and Lord Jesus Christ, that they may learn from your in- 
struction to believe correctly, and from your example to live re- 
ligiously.'^ 

The establishment of this new hierarchy throughout the island 
generally superseded that of the British prelates, and took away all 
pretext for relying on their privileges, which were certainly not com- 
municated to their rivals. For above a century, nevertheless, the 
ancient order of bishops was continued, but with entire separation from 
the new line derived from Augustin, so that even as late as the days of 
Bede, the Britons had as lieve communicate with pagans as with the 
Anglo-Saxon Christians. J At length they utterly disappeared, and the 
successors of Augustin and his colleagues were everywhere found; so 
that, as Dr. Lingard confidently affirms, in contradiction to Mr. Soames, 
" not a single county, from London to Edinburgh, can point to the ancient 
Church of Britain as its nursing mother in the faith of Christ." § 

St. Aidan, an Irish monk, was the apostle of Northumbria, and other 



* Ep. lxiv. f Bed., 1. i. c. xxix. 

% Bede, Eccl. Hist., 1. ii. e. xx. 

§ History and Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, ch. i. p. 43. Note. Second 
English edition. 

14 



210 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



of his countrymen preached the Gospel with success in various parts of 
England : but the Roman origin of the Anglo-Saxon church and hierarchy 
was in no degree affected by the co-operation of these missionaries, since 
Ireland itself traces her Christian privileges to Patrick, the companion of 
Palladius, who was ordained by Pope Celestine for the Scoti, according to 
the testimony of Prosper. Besides, the Irish missionaries recognised the 
existing hierarchy, and incorporated their converts in the church. 

I 3. — PASCHAL CONTROVERSY. 

The Britons, as well as the Irish, differed from Rome in the calculation 
of the paschal time, through ignorance of the correct mode of deter- 
mining it, which was adopted after the first quarter of the fifth century. 
They were not, however, Quartodecimans, as those were styled who cele- 
brated Easter on the same day as the Jews. The tenacity with which 
they adhered to the method prescribed to them by the early missionaries, 
was an occasion of some controversy, which, nevertheless, had no serious 
results. It is in vain alleged as evidence, that both islands had originally 
received the faith from Oriental missionaries, since the mode of calculation 
adopted in Britain and Ireland was different even from that which was 
used in the East, and they invariably celebrated the feast on Sunday, 
contrary to the practice of those who imitated the Jewish solemnit}'. 
The day of their festival was calculated according to the cycle used by the 
Roman Church before the Council of Nice.* The dissension of the Ro- 
man and Irish missionaries on this point, led Oswiu, King of Northum- 
bria, to summon them to his presence, in order to ascertain the grounds 
on which each relied. Wilfrid, the chaplain of Prince Alchfrid, seeing 
that Colman, the Bishop of Lindisfarne, placed the strength of the Irish 
cause on the authority of St. Columba, insisted that the usage sanctioned 
by the apostle Peter, on whom the Lord founded His Church, and to 
whom He gave the keys of His kingdom, should prevail. The king, 
having questioned Colman as to the high prerogative of the apostle, ob- 
tained a willing acknowledgment of it, and put an end to the discussion 
by declaring his desire to enjoy the favor of the gate-keeper of heaven. 
The narrative of this interesting debate, which is given by Venerable 
Bede,f shows that the authority of the prince of the apostles was fully 
recognised by both parties. The adherence of the Irish missionaries to 
the custom of their ancestors in a matter of discipline, is no evidence of 
opposition to the teaching of the Roman Church, or of estrangement 
from her communion, since, whilst condemning the Quartodecimans, who 
retained the Jewish festival-day, she tolerated those who merely differed 



* This is certified of the Scots by Goodall, ad Hist. Scot., introd. p. 66. 
f L. iii., Hist. c. xxv. xxvi. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



211 



in the mode of calculation. St. Columban, who with great vehemence 
defended the Irish usage, without becoming deference to the Pontiff whom 
he addressed, rendered, in the same letter, unequivocal homage to the au- 
thority of the Holy See. Those of the South of Ireland yielded to the 
admonition of Pope Honorius,* and the Northerns not long afterwards con- 
formed to the Roman usage. The Britons persisted in their ancient prac- 
tice the more pertinaciously, because the Anglo-Saxons, whom they held 
in detestation, observed the festival on a different day. The controversy 
was rather chronological than theological, as Dr. Lingard well observes. 



I 4.— ANGLO-SAXON HIERARCHY. 

The plan of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy was traced out by the hand of 
Gregory. He authorized Augustin to consecrate twelve bishops, one of 
whom, the Bishop of London, should have the pallium, and should be 
consecrated by his own Synod, that is, be chosen by his suffragans, and 
consecrated by one of them, with the assistance of two others, which, 
however, was dispensed with when impracticable. The Bishop of York 
had power to consecrate twelve bishops, over whom he had the authority 
of metropolitan, although he was subject to Canterbury, and, according to 
seniority, preceded or followed the Bishop of London. f The changes 
which took place in the civil governments, prevented the execution of this 
plan, which was modified by the Popes Vitalian and Agatho. The latter, 
by the authority of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles,! determined 
and decreed that there should be only twelve bishops in the whole island, 
under the government of the Archbishop of Canterbury, " decorated for 
the time by the Holy See with the honor of the pallium." Egbert, 
Bishop of York, succeeded in recovering the ancient dignity of his see 
from Gregory III., who sent him the badge of metropolitan. "§ The See 
of Lichfield was erected into an archbishopric in 787, by the authority of 
Pope Adrian, who sent the pallium to its prelate, at the urgent solicitation 
of Offa, King of Mercia. Cenulf, who subsequently occupied the throne, 
in seeking the revocation of this measure, protested unqualified sub- 
mission to the decrees of the Pontiff, " which no Christian dares gain- 
say but at the same time declared that the statements of Offa were not 
founded in truth and justice. Accordingly, Leo III. rescinded the act of 
his predecessor, and restored to Canterbury its ancient rights over all the 
other bishops. iEthelheard, the archbishop, who had pleaded his cause 



* L. ii., Hist. c. xix. 1. iii. c. iii. f Ep. lxv. 

J " Ex auctoritate beati Petri apostolorum prineipis — definimus et statuimus, ut unum- 
quodque regnum in Britannia insula institutum habeat secundum moderationis mensuram 
episcopos ita statutos," &c. — Labbe, torn. vii. 601. Spelman, Cone. 159. 

§ Chron. Sax.^an. 735. Malm, de Pont, 1. iii. p. 153. 



212 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



successfully at the Roman court, on his return, published the apostolical 
decision in the Council of Cloveshoe, and made enactments in accordance 
with it, with the consent and permission of the Pontiff. Thus the supre- 
macy of the Holy See was exercised in the most unequivocal manner, in 
the original organization of the Anglo-Saxon Church, and in its subse- 
quent modification. Guizot might well say to his pupils : " As to the 
Anglo-Saxon Church, you know that having been founded by the Popes 
themselves, it was placed from the commencement under their most direct 
influence."* 

The successors of Augustin in the See of Canterbury, like him, received 
from the Pontiff the pallium, as the necessary token of his sanction for 
the exercise of metropolitical authority. Justinus obtained it from St. 
Boniface V., and Honorius from his namesake, who then occupied the 
Holy See. Paulinus, of York, received it from the latter Pontiff. So 
essential was it deemed, that Eanbald, who had been consecrated bishop, 
as coadjutor to Archbishop iElbert, with right of succession, did not 
omit, on the death of JElbert, in 780, to despatch Alcuin to Rome to ob- 
tain it, after which he was solemnly inaugurated. His successor, of the 
same name, awaited a year for its reception, on which he was confirmed 
archbishop. -ZElfsy, of Winchester, archbishop elect, died on his journey 
to Rome, which he had undertaken to procure for himself the pallium. 
In the ninth century, the indulgence of the Holy See, which previously 
spared the archbishop elect the necessity of travelling to Rome to obtain 
it, was withdrawn, so that each had to seek it in person, to testify more 
solemnly his dependence on the chair of St. Peter. 

Aldred, Bishop of Worcester, aspiring to the See of York, in the year 
1059, repaired to Rome, in company of Gison, Bishop elect of Wells, and 
Walter, elect of Hereford. These latter two prelates, being unexcep- 
tionable, received consecration from the hands of the Pontiff, who de- 
clined to promote Aldred, against whom a charge of simony had been 
advanced. The disappointed prelate had scarcely left the city, when, 
falling into the hands of brigands, he was despoiled and forced to return. 
His misfortune accomplished what his merit had failed to procure, and the 
Pontiff consented that he should pass to the See of York, on relinquish- 
ing the other diocese. Two cardinals went to England, probably to see 
that this should be faithfully executed, and having approved of the 
election of Wulstan to fill the vacant^ bishopric, assisted at his conse- 
cration. 

Lanfranc, Archbishop elect of Canterbury, going to Rome, in the year 
1071, for the pallium, readily obtained it, with extraordinary marks of 
honor and affection, from Alexander II., who had been his pupil. The 
Pontiff gave him that which he himself was wont to use in the cele- 



* Cours d'Histoire Moderne, t. iii. p. 67. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



213 



bration of mass, besides another, such as was granted to every metro- 
politan. 

Several of the occupants of the See of Canterbury were consecrated by 
the Popes themselves. On the death of Wighard, archbishop elect, who 
had come to Rome for consecration, Pope Vitalian, in 668, chose Theo- 
dore, a Greek monk, to fill his place, and having consecrated him with his 
own hands, despatched him to govern the Anglo-Saxon Church.* Five 
centuries afterwards, Alexander II. consecrated for the same see, Richard, 
Prior of Dover, at the solicitation of Henry II., who had implored the 
Pontiff not to regard the pretensions of his revolted son, who sought to 
fill the churches with his creatures and supporters. 

The Metropolitan of Canterbury was accustomed to receive the powers 
of Apostolic Vicar, which constituted him Legate of the Pope. Gregory 
II., writing to the bishops of England respecting Tatwine, the second 
in succession from Theodore, says : " We have authorized him to act in 
our stead in all things in that country." Formosus speaks in like man- 
ner of Plegmond, who filled the same See.f Pope John addressed 
St. Dunstan to the same effect, in conformity with the usages of his pre- 
decessors. In 1117, Henry I. solicited Paschal II. to relieve his king- 
dom from the necessity of receiving papal legates, alleging that, by the 
concession of Gregory the Great, the Archbishop of Canterbury was in- 
vested with legatine powers. The Pontiff called for documentary proof 
of the concession. Celestine III., in 1194, constituted Hubert of Can- 
terbury his legate. In the contest about privileges between the Sees of 
York and Canterbury, the whole question turned on the pontifical grants, 
which were preserved with great care in the archives of each church, as 
its most valid titles. Lanfranc, in his report to Alexander II. of the 
proceedings in this case, observes : " For the final strength and support 
of the whole case, the privileges and writings of your predecessors, 
Gregory, Boniface, Honorius, Vitalian, Sergius, also of another Gregory, 
and of the last Leo were produced, which had been given or transmitted 
at various times to the prelates of the Church of Canterbury, and to the 
English kings."J 

I 3.— ACKNOWLEDGMENT OE THE PRIMACY. 

The terms in which Bede, and all the Anglo-Saxon writers, speak of 
St. Peter, and of the Bishops of Rome, are such as leave no room to 



* Of this Hallam says : " The consecration of Theodore by Pope Vitalian, in 668, is a 
stronger fact," {than the appeal of Wilfred,) "and cannot be got over by those inju- 
dicious Protestants, who take the bull by the horns." — Middle Ages, ch. vii. Note. 

f Dr. Lingard, on the authority of Eadmer, defends the authenticity of this letter. 
Vol. i. p. 89. 

X Apud Baron, an. 1072, p. 409. 



214 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



question their faith in the divine institution of the primacy, and its per- 
petual duration for the government of the entire Church. The venerable 
historian says that Gregory "was invested with the first" (that is, su- 
preme) " pontificate in the whole world, and was set over the churches 
converted to the true faith."* The celebrated scholar Alcuin, avows 
that "the Lord Jesus Christ had constituted Peter shepherd of His 
chosen flock f'f and acknowledges Adrian I., the actual Pontiff, as 
"Vicar of Peter, occupying his chair, and inheriting his wonderful au- 
thority.";}; Huelbert, Abbot of Wearmouth, addressed Gregory the Great 
as "divinely intrusted with the government of the whole Church. "§ 
The Bishops of Rome were even designated presidents of the world. || 
In the Anglo-Saxon Pontifical a prayer is prescribed for the consecration 
of the sovereign Pontiff, which expresses in the strongest terms the 
eminence and authority of his station. It styles him " this Thy servant, 
whom Thou hast made prelate of the Apostolic See, and primate of all 
priests in the world, and teacher of Thy universal Church, and whom 
Thou hast chosen for the ministry of the high priesthood."^" 

By order of Pope Agatho, a Council was held at Hatfield, by Theodore, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, and his suffragans, in presence of John, 
Abbot of St. Martin's, deputy of the Holy See, to declare the faith of 
the Anglo-Saxons, and subscribe the doctrinal definition of Martin I. 
against Monothelism : which desire of the Pontiff was religiously com- 
plied with. 

In a Council held at Cloveshoe, in the middle of the eighth century, at 
which Cuthbert, Archbishop of Canterbury, opened the assembly by the 
lecture of two writings, received "from the apostolic lord, the Pontiff 
held in reverence by the whole world, the Pope Zachary, which, as he by 
his apostolical authority had commanded, were first read openly in Latin, 
and then in an English translation. In these he admonished the Anglo- 
Saxon inhabitants of this island of Britain, expostulated with them, and 
conjured them ; and then threatened to cut off from the communion of 
the Church all who should despise his warning, and obstinately persist in 
their wickedness."** Their first canon, directed to the reformation of 
their own order, was avowedly made to prevent the execution of this 
threat. Yet there have been some writers so ingenious as to discover 
evidence of the independence of the Anglo-Saxon Church in the decrees 
of this Council ! 

The legates of Adrian visited England during the administration of 
Jaenbyrct, Archbishop of Canterbury, bringing with them from the Holy 



* Bede, Hist., ii. c. i. f Ale. Oper., 1. 65, 134. 

% Ad Adrian Oper., L 25. \ Apud Bed., op. Min. 159, 329. 

|! Eddius, Vit. Wilf., e. v. p. 45. f Pont. Egb., p. 32. Pont. Geniet., p. 41. 

** WilMns, cone. 94. Spelman, cone., 245. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



215 



See canons for the reformation of morals : which, in an amended form, 
were read and adopted in two Councils, with solemn promise of obedience 
on the part of the prelates. 

The authority of the Holy See was also manifested in the deposition of 
Anglo-Saxon bishops. The legates of Alexander II. deposed the Bishop 
of Litchfield, who retired to a monastery.* Celestine III., on complaints 
made against Godfrey, Archbishop of York, brother of King Richard, 
commissioned the Bishop of Lincoln, with others, to take cognizance of 
the case, authorizing them to suspend him from the government of his 
diocese, if he were found guilty. The Pontiff himself, subsequently, 
pronounced the suspension, f 

The Holy See was recognised in England as a high court of appeal, to 
which bishops, oppressed by unjust judgments of their colleagues, might 
have recourse, with confidence of obtaining redress. In 664, Wilfrid was 
chosen Bishop of Northumbria : but thirteen years afterwards, Theodore, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, without his knowledge, consecrated three 
bishops for his territory, which he thought proper to divide into sepa- 
rate dioceses. The injured prelate, by the advice of his colleagues, 
appealed to the Pontiff, from the judgment and act of the metropolitan, 
and repaired to Rome to prosecute his appeal in person. Coenwald, a 
monk, appeared there in behalf of Theodore, and the parties urged their 
reasons before a Council summoned by Pope Agatho for the trial of the 
cause. The Pontiff decreed that Wilfrid should be reinstated in his 
bishopric, under penalty of excommunication to be incurred by the arch- 
bishop and by King Egfrid, at whose instance he had acted. The 
division of the diocese was, however, insisted on, but the choice of the 
new prelates was left to Wilfrid. The violence and intrigues of the mo- 
narch prevented, during several years, his return to his diocese, although 
the archbishop himself urged the necessity of obeying the pontifical de- 
cree. Aldfrid, who succeeded Egfrid, in 685, restored to him the See of 
York and the monastery of Ripon, but afterwards, under threats of ven- 
geance, sought to force him to make the latter the see of a new bishop. 
The affrighted prelate fled into the dominions of the King of Mercia, and 
during nine years remained an exile from his see, until Brithwald, the 
successor of Theodore, invited him to attend a Council. In this assembly 
he was urged to resign, but he appealed again to the just tribunal of the 
Roman Pontiff. After hearing the agent of the metropolitan, and the 
bishop, in a tedious trial, John VI. pronounced judgment in favor of 
Wilfrid. The king, however, for a time resisted the execution of the 
sentence, alleging that he had been previously condemned by the metro- 
politan, by the envoy of the Apostolic See, and by almost all the bishops 
of Britain : but in a few weeks being overtaken by death, he declared his 



* Baron., an. 1095. 



f Ibidem, an. 1159. 



216 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



wish to be reconciled with the injured prelate. After his death the dis- 
sension was amicably terminated to the satisfaction of all parties. " It 
has been often said," remarks Dr. Lingard, " that the great object of Wil- 
frid was to establish in Northumbria the authority of Rome : but it must 
be evident to every reader, that he found the authority of Rome already 
established, and had recourse to it only to protect himself from oppression. 
The result proved the utility of this supreme jurisdiction claimed by the 
Pontiff : for we read no more, from the time of Wilfrid till the reign of 
Edward the Confessor, of any arbitrary deposition of bishops at the will 
either of the king or of the metropolitan."* 

It may gratify the reader to peruse the quaint statement of this case by 
a Protestant historian. Speaking of the solicitations to resign, made to 
Wilfrid by the Council, Puller says : " In a Council convened for the 
purpose, the bishops endeavored in vain to induce him to resign. Wil- 
fride persisted loyall to his own innocence, affirming such a cession might 
be interpreted a confession of his guiltinesse, and appealed from that 
Council to his Holinesse, and this tough old man, being seventy years of 
age, took a journey to Rome, there to tugg it out with his adversaries. 
. . . The sentence of Pope John the Seventhf passed on his side, and his 
opposcrs were sent home with blame and shame, whilst Wilfride returned 
with honour, managing his successe with much moderation j equally com- 
mendable, that his innocence kept him from drooping in affliction, and his 
humility from insulting in prosperity. Bertuald, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, humbly entertained the Pope's letters in behalf of Wilfride, and 
welcomed his person at his return ; but Alfride, King of Northum- 
berland, refused to re-seat him in his bishoprick, stoutly maintaining, 
that 'twas against reason to communicate with a man twice condemned by 
the Council of England, notwithstanding all apostolick commands in favor 
of him. But soon after he fell dangerously sick, a consequent of, and 
therefore caused by his former stubbornnesse ; as those that construe all 
events to the advantage of the Roman See, interpret this a punishment on 
his obstinacy. Suppled with sicknesse, he confessed his fault; and so 
Wilfride was restored to his place. "J Thus the king finally yielded to 
the authority of Rome, and put her judgment -in execution. The right 
of the Pope to receive appeals, and grant relief, was acknowledged in 
England, as in every other part of Christendom. 



* History and Antiquities, &o. ch. iii. The reader will find there, and in the appendix, 
the full statement of the facts, and the refutation of modern misrepresentations. 

f Dr. Lingard ascribes the sentence to his immediate predecessor, of the same 
name. 

X The Church History of Britain Endeavored, by Thomas Fuller. London, 1656. 
Century viii., book ii. p. 93. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



217 



6.— MODERN CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 

It is vain to plead the apology of the Church of England on the 
ground of the patriarchal system, which presupposes the primacy. Even 
by this system the Church of England stands condemned, since she re- 
fuses obedience to the Roman Patriarch, whose jurisdiction she had 
acknowledged up to the moment that a licentious prince forced her to 
abjure it : " Henry the Eighth fixing his supremacy on a reluctant 
church by the axe, the gibbet, the stake, and laws of premunire and 
forfeiture."* The refusal to admit that the Pope is universal bishop is not 
the head and front of her offence, as has been sometimes alleged ; for she 
is not called on to approve a title which the Pontiffs have never assumed, 
or to adopt any theory about the extent of pontifical prerogative, but simply 
to accept the primacy, as defined by the Council of Florence, and to place 
herself in that position which she occupied from the time when Augustin 
founded and organized her. Mr. Allies, whilst defending the Church of 
England, unconsciously gave up the cause : "If the charge were that we 
refuse to stand in the same relation to the Pope that St. Augustin of Can- 
terbury stood in to this very St. Gregory, that we refuse to regard and 
honor the successor of St. Gregory with the same honor with which our 
archbishops, as soon as they were seated in the government of their 
church, and were no longer mere missionaries, but primates, regarded the 
occupants of St. Peter's See, I think both the separation three hundred 
years ago, and the present continuance of it on our part, would, so far as 
this question of schism is concerned, be utterly indefensible."*)" 

Mr. Palmer observes, that the clergy qualified the admission of the 
royal supremacy J by the very important clause : "as far as it was con- 
sistent with the law of Christ :" but he forgets that this was in 1531, at 
the commencement of the changes, and that soon afterwards they pledged 
themselves, "on the word of a priest," to obey the king in spiritual 
matters. § The papal power was transferred to the king, which Mr. 
Palmer says was merely suppressed: for by the 25 Henry VIII. , c. 19, 
the right of appeal from the sentence of metropolitans, which pre- 
viously lay to the Pontiff, was granted " to the king's majesty, in the 
king's Court of Chancery;" to be heard "by such persons as shall be 
named by the king's highness." " This statute," Mr. Lewis remarks, 
" is the origin of the court of delegates, which has lately made way for 
the judicial committee of the privy council, in which resides, now, the 



* Church of England Cleared, p. 172. 

f Church of England Cleared, &c. p. 194. 

J Treatise on the Church, vol. i. p. ii. ch. iii. 

§ See Act of Submission in Wilkins, iii. 754, 755. 



218 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



supreme jurisdiction of the Anglican Church."* Mr. Palmer strangely 
confounds this recourse to the king, as supreme head on earth, with 
the usage, or rather abuse, which exists in some countries, of invoking 
the protection of the State against alleged encroachments of the ecclesi- 
astical authority. L'appel d'abus,-f is in itself an enormous abuse, from 
which no sanction can be derived for the still more unjustifiable practice 
of appeal to the royal tribunal as supreme in all causes, ecclesiastical as 
well as civil. The papal power in regard to the appointment of bishops, 
was abrogated by the same act, c. 20, and declared to belong to the king, 
who, by his conge d'elire,\ determined the choice of the electors, under 
severe penalties, and by the grant of the pallium conferred metropolitical 
authority. Dispensations hitherto obtained from Rome were, by c. 21, to 
be sought from the archbishop, and in extraordinary cases the king's license 
became necessary. The spiritual prelates were authorized by this statute 
" to use, minister, execute, and do all sacraments, sacramentals, and 
divine service." By the statute 26 Henry VIII., c. 1, the king, as 
" only supreme head in earth of the Church of England," was declared 
to have all pre-eminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities to the 
said dignity belonging, and especially full power to repress, correct, and 
amend all heresies and abuses which by any manner spiritual authority or 
jurisdiction, ought to be repressed, corrected, or amended." Mr. Palmer 
explains this of " temporal means and penalties in concurrence with the 
judgment of the Church of England," but he betrays his want of con- 
fidence in this interpretation by observing : " The bishops understood 
it in some such sense, for they not only offered no opposition to the 
passing of this bill, but immediately after swore to the king's supre- 
macy." This only shows that they meanly crouched at the feet of the 
tyrant. The appointment of Thomas Cromwell, a layman, to be Vicar 
General of the king, " sounded ill," according to the apologist. There 
was full evidence that it was intended in a heterodox sense, since he was 
empowered to correct archbishops and bishops, to summon Synods, and 
preside in them, to excommunicate, and to use his authority in all 
causes touching the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The servility of Cranmer 
in seeking from the boy Edward a renewal of his jurisdiction, and the 
acknowledgment of the other bishops that all jurisdiction, both eccle- 
siastical and civil, flows from the royal power,§ leaves no room for the 
subtleties of Mr. Palmer. " Authority of jurisdiction, spiritual and 
temporal," says the statute of 1 Edward VIII., c. 2., " is derived and 
deducted from the king's majesty, as supreme head of these churches 



* Notes on the Nature and Extent of the Royal Supremacy in the Anglican Church, 
by David Lewis, M.A. — of which valuable essay I shall avail myself freely, 
f "Appeal against an abuse." 
J A writ of leave to elect a prelate. 
\ Wilkins iii. 797, 798. 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



219 



and realms of England and Ireland." Although Elizabeth disavowed 
her right to administer the sacraments, she persisted in claiming the 
powers exercised by her father and brother, as is evident from the 
following enactment : " Such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities and 
pre-eminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or eccle- 
siastical power or authority hath heretofore been, or may lawfully be, 
exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons, 
and for reformation, order, and correction of the same, and all manner 
of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempts and enormities, 
shall forever, by authority of this present parliament, be united and 
annexed to the imperial crown of this realm."* 

The acts of Elizabeth prove that her royal supremacy was not an 
empty name. She issued her commission June 24th, 1559, to certain 
laymen, with one doctor in divinity, to visit several dioceses " both in the 
-head and the members," giving them power to deprive the bishops. She 
undertook to place Matthew Parker in the See of Canterbury, " sup- 
plying, by her supreme authority," any defects or impediments to his 
ordination, and then, by the agency of her obsequious parliament, 
declaring it valid. f In him she laid the foundation of a new fabric, 
which she herself modelled, "the Church by law established," which 
subsists to this day. Mr. Lewis observes : u The civil power abolished 
the papal jurisdiction, and established the royal supremacy in its place; 
the Anglican Church adopted the work of the State, binding itself by 
oath at the most solemn time, in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward 
VI. Twice it approved deliberately of the acts of Elizabeth, and at 
this day, in the 36th Article of her religion, acknowledges the legislation 
of Henry and Edward not to be superstitious and ungodly. "J " The 
King, or Queen, as the case may be, is with most terrible reality, and 
not simply by fiction of law, Head of the Established Church. "§ Truly 
has the rejection of the shepherd whom Christ appointed, resulted in 
weakness and in shame. || A " human Church" has been erected on 
the ruins of the magnificent fabric which Gregory planned, Augustin 
founded, and his successors constructed. Bishops of royal creation have 
knelt in homage to the power from which their jurisdiction flowed : and a 
boy or a girl, a bold woman or a brutal man, has controlled functions 
which are connected with the immortal destinies of mankind. The 



* 1 Eliz. c. i. 

f For a full view of this question I refer to the work entitled, " The Validity of 
Anglican Ordinations examined/' by Peter Richard Kenrick, Archbishop of St. Louis. 
Philadelphia, 1848. 

% Notes on the Royal Supremacy, p. 95. 

§ Dr. Nevin, Art. Cyprian, M. R., July, 1852. 

|| See "The Anglican Church, the Creature and Slave of the State/' by Rev. Peter 
Cooper. London, 1844. 



220 



THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 



words of the prophet have been fulfilled : " Dabo pueros principes 
eoruin, mulieres dominabuntur eis/ ; * 

Has not the time arrived when a nation, so enlightened and illustrious, 
will look back to the source from which she originally derived the know- 
ledge of Christianity, and fulfil, as far as regards herself, the almost 
prophetic words of her erratic poet ? 

Parent of our religion ! whom the wide 
Nations have knelt to for the keys of heaven ! 
Europe, repentant of her parricide, 

Shall yet 

sue to be forgiven, f 



* Isaias iii. 4, 12. 



f Byron, Childe Harold, canto iv. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



fapl fnrnpiiim, 

The chief prerogatives of the Pontiff may be gathered from the facts 
and documents which have been submitted to the reader : belonging to 
the first six ages of the Church, and consequently not open to the 
objection of those who complain, that by means of the false decretals of 
Isidore, which first appeared in the ninth century, the papal power was 
immeasurably enlarged. I have purposely avoided all reference to this 
compilation, in order to furnish no pretext for questioning the authorities 
on which I rely, or the extent of prerogative which I vindicate. Al- 
though the materials out of which the decretals were constructed are of 
far greater antiquity, being for the most part taken from ancient decrees 
of the Popes, or of Councils, or from the Cassarean laws, or the writings 
of the fathers, I willingly forego all advantage to be derived from them, 
and confine myself to documents unquestionably authentic. Some have 
rashly charged the Popes with originating this imposture, with a view to 
the enlargement of their prerogatives : but the learned trace its origin to 
Mentz in G-ermany, and allow that the extension of papal power was not 
the primary object of the compiler. u It was not in fact," says Guizot, 
" compiled for the exclusive interest of the Popedom. It appears rather, 
on the whole, according to the primitive intention, more especially des- 
tined to serve the bishops against the metropolitans and temporal sove- 
reigns."* The imposture consisted in giving the decrees an undue anti- 
quity, and false inscriptions, by ascribing them to the Popes of the first 
three ages. The success of the fraud is accounted for by the fact, that 
the actual discipline was the basis of the arrangement, so that scarcely 
any innovation was introduced abhorrent to general usage. Had they 
been brought forward to sanction novel and exorbitant pretensions, their 
authenticity would scarcely have escaped question, even in a less en T 
lightened age. It is absurd to trace the prerogatives of the Holy See to 
these false decretals, whilst unquestionable documents of far higher 
antiquity plainly establish them.f 



* Cours d'Histoire Moderne, t. iii. p. 84. 

t Hallam, after Schmidt, remarks that St. Boniface inc his synod held at Frankfort, ia 
742, anticipated the system of Isidore. — Middle Ages, ch. vii. 

221 



222 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



The primacy extends to the entire world, since the commission given to 
the apostles is to teach all nations, and preach the Gospel to every 
creature : but none are subject to it who have not by baptism entered 
witfiin the pale of the Church. It is called by St. Chrysostom u the 
presidency of the universal Church/'* which, he observes, Christ com- 
mitted to Peter, after his fall. In virtue of his office, the Pontiff teaches 
with authority, and directs his teaching to all the children of the 
Church, wherever they may be found, pastors and people : he pronounces 
judgment on all, whose faith is suspected, to whatever rank they belong; 
he condemns heresy, wherever it may have originated, or by whomsoever 
it may be supported : he calls on his colleagues, the bishops, to concur in 
the condemnation : he assembles them in Council, to investigate and 
judge with him the controversies that are raised, or to concur by their 
harmonious judgment and action in rooting out condemned errors : he 
confirms and promulgates their definitions of faith, and incessantly 
guards the sacred deposit of divine doctrine. All these acts have been 
performed in all ages of the Church by the Bishop of Rome, as suc- 
cessor of St. Peter : and have been universally acknowledged to be the 
prerogatives and duties of his office. St. Leo, after expatiating on the 
divine strength imparted to Peter and his successors for the discharge of 
these functions, observes that it u is assailed with impious presumption by 
whosoever attempts to infringe on his power, following passion, and 
abandoning the tradition of the ancients. "f 

It is the undoubted right of the Pope to pronounce judgment on con- 
troversies of faith. All doctrinal definitions already made by General 
Councils, or by former Pontiffs, are landmarks which no man can remove; 
but as the human mind may assail revelation in endless varieties of form, 
there must be always in the Church an authority by which error, under 
every new aspect, may be effectually condemned. Nothing can be added 
to the faith originally delivered to the saints ; but points contained in the 
deposit of revelation, may be expressly declared and defined, when the 
obscurity which may have existed as to the fact of their revelation has 
been dissipated. The assembling of a General Council is always attended 
with immense difficulty, and is oftentimes utterly impracticable. The 
chief Bishop is " the natural organ of the Church,"! as Peter is styled 
by St. Chrysostom " the mouth of the apostles." In pronouncing judg- 
ment, he does not give expression to a private opinion, or follow his own 
conjectures; but he takes for his rule the public and general faith, and 
tradition of the Church, as gathered from Scripture, the fathers, the 
liturgies, and other documents; imploring the guidance of the Divine 



* TV htUrrautiav rrjs oiKovfisviKrjg eKickriaias Ivtxtipiae. Ad. pop. Antioeh. horn, v., de pcenit. 
f Ep. x., ad episc. per prov. Vien. 

X Thoughts and Sights in Foreign Churches, by Frederick W. Faber. This estimable 
writer has since passed to the Catholic communion. 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



223 



Spirit, and using all human means for ascertaining the fact of revelation. 
It has been warmly disputed whether a solemn judgment thus pro- 
nounced, wherein a doctrine is proposed to the Church generally as neces- 
sary to be believed, under pain of anathema, or an error is proscribed as 
opposed to faith, with the same sanction, may possibly be erroneous. The 
personal fallibility of the Pope in his private capacity, writing or speak- 
ing, is freely conceded by the most ardent advocates of papal prerogatives. 
His official infallibility, ex cathedra, in the circumstances just specified, 
is strongly affirmed by St. Alphonsus de Liguori, and a host of divines, 
in accordance, as I believe, with ancient tradition, although the as- 
sembly of the French clergy in 1682 contended that his judgment may 
admit of amendment,* as long as it is not sustained by the assent and 
adhesion of the great body of bishops. Practically, there is no room for 
difficulty, since all solemn judgments hitherto pronounced by the Pontiff 
have received the assent of his colleagues. The Pontiff never has been 
isolated from his brethren : the harmony of faith being always exhibited 
in the teaching of the episcopal body, united with their head. The au- 
thority of the Pope in matters of faith appeared most conspicuously in 
the fourth and fifth centuries. The decrees of Damasus, and Innocent, 
and the doctrinal letters of Celestine and Leo, were hailed by the bishops, 
severally, and in solemn Councils, as the correct expositions of the mys- 
teries of the Trinity and Incarnation. For the maintenance of this faith 
the Pontiffs sent legates to the Eastern emperors and Councils, urging it 
above all other things. Their indefatigable industry, their untiring so- 
licitude, their disregard of every selfish consideration, when the integrity 
of faith was in question, are marked on every page of history. Faith 
evidently is the vital principle of papal authority. 

The plenitude of pontifical power in all that appertains to the govern- 
ment of the universal Church, is affirmed in the Florentine decree. It is 
certain that this power must be used for edification, not for destruction : 
for the interests of faith and piety; for the maintenance of order and 
unity; in a word, for the good of the Church. It is a government of 
justice, order, and law, to be conducted, not arbitrarily and capriciously, 
but according to established canons, or rules. It admits, however, of ex- 
ceptions and dispensations, since the rigorous enforcement of uniformity, 
in a government embracing so many different nations, would render it 
intolerable. Whilst, then, the papal authority should be exercised in 
conformity with the canons or laws of general Councils and preceding 
Pontiffs, unless the altered condition of things require a change of legis- 



* Bouvier denies that the declaration was meant to affirm that the judgment of the 
Pope was fallible, since to avoid this assertion, Bossuet insisted on the use of the term 
'* irreformabile." — Tract, de Vera Eccl., p. Ill, g ii. sect. iv. punct. ii. n. 4. It is probable 
that he took the assent of the bishops as the test to distinguish a solemn judgment ex 
cathedra from a less formal decision. 



224 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



lation, a dispensing power must exist, and be exercised by the Supreme 
Executive. Individuals, for a just reason, may be freed from the 
observance of a general law, at the discretion of the Pontiff. The ancient 
usages of local churches are to be respected, and their established order is 
to be maintained ; but if the higher interests of the universal Church 
require the suppression of a local usage, or if the existence of the local 
Church be in jeopardy, unless the order be changed, there is room for the 
exercise of pontifical supremacy. The French hierarchy had flourished 
from the days of St. Remigius down to the execution of the sixteenth 
Louis, when the fury of the revolutionists immolated several of the vene- 
rable prelates, and drove the remainder into banishment. The temples 
of religion were profaned, and the Christian worship proscribed. Amidst 
the anarchy there arose a daring soldier, who, in the name of liberty, 
grasped an iron sceptre, and offered to become the protector of religion, 
on condition that the exiled prelates should renounce their rights, and the 
Church of France should be re-organized conformably to the new civil di- 
visions of territory. Pius VII. called on the bishops to make the sacrifice 
of their undoubted rights and just attachments, and using the plenitude 
of his authority, stripped those who hesitated of all claims to their sees, 
and gave to France a new ecclesiastical organization.* The extreme ne- 
cessity of the case justified, in the eyes of the Church at large, this 
unprecedented act of pontifical supremacy. 

It is difficult to assign precise limits to a power which must be adapted 
to the exigencies of the Church in an endless variety of circumstances. 
It cannot, however, command an}^ thing immoral. The hackneyed mis- 
representation of the hypothetical argument of Bellarmine deserves to be 
noticed only to guard the unsuspecting against gross deception. This 
eminent controvertist, maintaining the official infallibility of the Pope, 
extends it to decrees regarding morals, since an error in moral principle 
would imply an error in faith itself, and expose the Church at large, in 
obeying her head, to a practical absurdity and defilement. It is agreed 
by moralists, that in matters which are doubtful, the presumption is in 
favor of the superior, and obedience is consequently due, when what is 
ordered is not manifestly wrong. Taking this moral principle as the basis 
of his reasoning, Bellarmine constructs on it an hypothetical argument in 
favor of pontifical infallibility in moral matters ; imitating mathema- 
ticians, who, from the absurdity of a consequence, infer the falsehood of 
an hypothesis, and thereby establish the truth of the opposite principle. 
" I prove/' says he, " that the Pope cannot err in morals intrinsically 
good or evil, for the Church could not, in that case, be truly called holy ; 
— and besides, she would then necessarily err in faith : for Catholic faith 
teaches that all virtue is good, all vice is evil : but if the Pope should err 



* See Bulls Eccleaia Christi, 15 Aug., 1801, and Qui Christi Domini, 29 Nov., 1801. 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



225 



in commanding vice, or forbidding virtue, the Church would be bound to 
believe vice to be good, virtue to be evil, unless she chose to sin against 
conscience : for in doubtful matters the Church is bound to acquiesce in 
the judgment of the sovereign Pontiff, and to do what he orders, and to 
avoid what he forbids ; and in order not to act against conscience, she is 
bound to believe that to be good which he orders, that to be evil which he 
forbids."* All may not acquiesce in the correctness of this reasoning; 
but no one can seriously pretend that Bellarmine makes the belief of the 
Church as to what is virtue or vice dependent on the caprice of the Pon- 
tiff. It is remarkable that no decree ever issued from the papal chair 
sanctioning any immoral principle : whilst on the contrary, the rash pro- 
positions in moral matters which were hazarded by some divines, were 
sifted by the Popes with nice discrimination, and condemned, whether 
they favored relaxation of morals, or affected a severity not compatible 
with the mild maxims of the Gospel. It was not the learning or the 
wisdom of the individual Pontiffs that enabled them to steer the vessel of 
the Church through rocks and shoals, on which the wisest and most 
learned men had made shipwreck : it was the overruling providence of 
G-od which directed their judgment. Even Voltaire acknowledges, in 
reference to their anathemas against duellists, that their decrees were 
always wise, and always advantageous to the Christian world, wherever 
their personal interests were not in question; which are certainly not 
connected with decisions on abstract principles of morality. f The Pope 
may enjoin, in matters ecclesiastical, what he judges to be expedient for 
the maintenance of order, the extirpation of vice, and the promotion of 
piety. His power is chiefly employed in maintaining the general laws 
already established, regulating the mutual relations of the clergy, and 
mitigating the strictness of disciplinary observance, whensoever local or 
individual causes demand it. He only addresses conscience : his laws 
and censures are only powerful inasmuch as they are acknowledged to be 
passed under a divine sanction. No armies, or civil officers, are em- 



* " Quod autem non possit pontifex errare in moribus per se bonis vel malis, probatur. 

Nam tunc ecclesia non posset vere dici sancta Secundo, quia tunc necessario erraret 

etiam circa fidem. Nam fides Catholica docet omnem virtutem esse bonam, omne vitium 
esse malum : si autem papa erraret prsecipiendo vitia, vel probibendo virtutes; teneretur 
ecclesia credere vitia esse bona et virtutes malas, nisi vellct contra conscientam peccare. 
Tenetur enim in rebus dubiis ecclesia acquiescere judicio summi pontificis, et facere quod 
ille praecipit, non facere quod ille probibet : ac ne forte contra conscientiam agat, tenetur 
credere bonum esse quod ille prsecipit : malum quod ille prohibet." — De Romano Pon- 
tifice, 1. iv. c. v. 

f "Les decrets des papes, toujours sages, et de plus toujours utiles a la cbretiente, dans 
ce qui ne concernait pas leurs interets personnels, anatbematisaient ces combats." — Essai 
sur l'Histoire Generale, t. iii. cb. cxvii. 

15 



226 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



ployed to give them effect.* The fears which are sometimes expressed 
that he may abuse his power to the detriment of national or individual 
rights, are wholly groundless. It is employed to sustain right and justice, 
not to violate them. " For ourselves/' Dr. Nevin observes, "we say it 
plainly, we believe the acknowledgment of the Pope's spiritual primacy is 
just as little at war with a true American spirit, and carries in it just as 
little peril for our American liberties, as the acknowledgment of any like 
primacy in either of the Presbyterian General Assemblies, or in the 
American Episcopate, or in the private judgment simply of any true- 
blooded Puritan Independent, who holds himself at liberty, if need be, to 
brave on the plea of conscience all human authority besides. "j It is 
well observed by De Alaistre, that whatever may be said in the abstract 
of the plenitude of pontifical power, any attempt to exercise it wantonly, 
would provoke general and successful resistance. ""What," he asks, 
"can restrain the Pope? Every thing — canons, laws, national usages, 
sovereigns, tribunals, national assemblies, prescription, representations, 
negociations, duty, fear, prudence, and especially public opinion, the 
queen of the world. "J 

The providing of pastors necessarily appertains to him to whom the 
charge of the whole flock has been entrusted by Christ our Lord : yet the 
exercise of this power admits of much variety, according to the circum- 
stances of time and place, as is evident from ecclesiastical history. What- 
ever arrangement may be made for the election or appointment of 
bishops, with the concurrence and approbation of the Holy See, may be 
deemed just and proper. In the United States they are now appointed 
by the Pope, on the recommendation of the bishops of each ecclesiastical 
province, and of all the metropolitans. They are not, as I have already 
observed, mere deputies or vicars, much less vassals of the Pope; but 
successors of the apostles, exercising under him and with him the powers 
of binding and loosing, and respecting his high rank, without detriment 
to their own. Their order is perpetual, and their jurisdiction should not 



* Of Rome, Voltaire has written : 

"L'univers flechissait sous son aigle terrible : 
Elle exerce en nos jours un pouvoir plus paisible 
Elle a su sous son joug asservir ses vainqueurs, 
Gouverner les esprits, et commander aux coeurs ; 
Ses avis sont ses lois, ses deerets sont ses armes." 

La Eenriade, eh. iv. 
Once her proud eagle hovered o'er the world, 
But now her peaceful banner is unfurled ! 
The wild barbarians that o'erspread her lands 
Yield to her voice — obey her meek commands. 
Their minds she governs, whilst their hearts she charms: 
Her laws her counsels, her decrees her arms. 

f "The Anglican Crisis," M. R., July, 1851. 

j Du Pape, ch. xviii. 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



227 



be capriciously withdrawn; but if they abuse their power, they are 
amenable to his high tribunal. 

The relations of the Pope to a General Council have been the subject 
of much discussion. The right of summoning them to meet in solemn 
consultation for the general interests of the Church manifestly belongs to 
him, as he is the only one whose authority extends to all ; but his free 
acquiescence in the act of another who may have called them together, or 
in a spontaneous convention, is equivalent to his personal summons. The 
great Council of Nice was convened by Constantine ; yet according to the 
sixth general Council, Sylvester concurred in the convocation ;* the Em- 
peror Theodosius, in like manner, at the request of Daniasus, assembled 
the Oriental bishops at Constantinople. f Marcian, at the solicitation of 
Leo, summoned the Council of Chalcedon. The obvious reason of the 
interference of the Emperors was because, according to the laws, no pub- 
lic assembly could then be held without the imperial mandate, which was 
accompanied with the privilege of the free use of the public vehicles. 
Since the Christian religion has extended far beyond the limits of the em- 
pire, and the bishops live under various governments, there is no civil 
ruler whose mandate could ensure universal attendance ; but the voice of 
the Chief Pastor reaches to the most distant regions, and is respectfully 
heard by all his colleagues. 

The right of the Pontiff to preside in the assembly of his brethren, 
which results from the eminence of his station, is universally admitted. 
In the Eastern Councils it was always exercised by legates, who, to what- 
ever rank they belonged, even if only deacons, obtained precedency of 
the highest prelates, as representatives of the Chief Bishop. In the Ni- 
cene Council, Vitus and Vincentius, priests of the Roman Church, legates 
of Sylvester,^ took precedency of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and An- 
tioch; and Osius, Bishop of Corduba, an obscure diocese in Spain, was 
honored in like manner, doubtless in his representative capacity, which, 
although not declared in the acts now extant, is attested by Gelasius of 
Cyzicum, a Greek writer of the fifth century, and is fairly inferred from 
the fact, for which no other plausible reason can be assigned. § 

At Ephesus, Cyril of Alexandria presided, by special delegation of 
Celestine,|| whose legates, sent directly from his side, came with instruc- 
tions not to mingle in the discussions, but to pronounce judgment. At 
Chalcedon, Paschasinus and Lucentius, most reverend bishops, and Boni- 
face, a most religious priest, presided, " holding the place of the most 
holy and most beloved of God, Leo, Archbishop of ancient Rome."*|f 
In the synodical letter of the fathers to Leo, they say, that he presided 



* Act. xviii. f Theod., 1. y. Hist., c. viii. 

J Theod., 1. i. c. viii. \ See Fleury, 1. xi. sect, v., Hist. Eccl. 

|| Letter of Celestine to Cyril, c. xiii., Act. cone. Eph., col. 3123, Hard., t. i. 

f T. ii., Hard., p. u., p. 64. 



228 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



over them by his legates, " as the head over the members." The fathers 
of the fifth Council earnestly besought Vigilius to preside over them* at 
their deliberations " on the three chapters/' and having failed to induce 
him to be present, they read his letter, permitting the examination, as 
their authority for proceeding in his absence. Two priests and a deacon 
are mentioned in the sixth Council, at the head of all the bishops, as 
" holding the place of the most blessed and holy Archbishop of ancient 
Rome." The like is observable in the acts of the seventh and eighth 
Councils, in which the legates qualified their assent, by reserving to the 
Pontiff final judgment on the decrees. 

It was customary also to seek from the Roman Bishop the solemn con- 
firmation of the decrees of the Council. As the Nicene acts are imper- 
fect, and the first Council of Constantinople was not oecumenical in its 
original character, and the doctrinal letter of Celestine which preceded 
the Council of Ephesus was its guide in the proceedings, I shall at once 
refer to the synodical letter of the fathers of Chalcedon, in which they 
beseech the Pope to confirm their decree in favor of the Bishop of Con- 
stantinople : " We pray you to honor our judgment by your decrees; 
and as we have added the harmony of our assent to our head in what is 
good, so may your Holiness vouchsafe to supply what is wanting in your 
children." The Pope, neverthless, felt it to be his duty to annul this 
decree, as contrary to the ancient usages and rights of the patriarchs re- 
cognised at Nice. It is needless to exhibit in detail the proofs of the 
exercise of those prerogatives in the Western Councils, in several of 
which the Pope presided in person, and subsequently ratified their decrees 
by his solemn confirmation. The fathers of Trent acted in conformity 
with the examples of antiquity, when they gave to the pontifical legates 
the presidency of their assembly, and at the close of their proceedings 
sought from the Pope the confirmation of their acts, whereby they might 
be recommended to the veneration and observance of all the churches. 
So far back as the fourth century it was an established usage, having the 
force of law, that no canonical enactment could be made without the 
sanction of the Roman Bishop. f 

I deem it unnecessary to pursue the inquiry into papal prerogatives in 
further detail, or to speculate on possible contingencies. In the convul- 
sions of the Church at the period of the Council of Constance, when 
three pretenders claimed the keys, the assembled fathers deemed that 
they could do all things which might be necessary to restore unity and 
order. Nearly three centuries have elapsed since the last General Coun- 
cil, during which time the Church has been governed with wisdom and 
moderation by a series of holy and enlightened Pontiffs. The heresy of 



* Collat. i. p. 62, col. Hard., t. iii. 

f Sozomen, Hist., 1. iii. c. viii. x. Socrates, Hist, ii., ch. xvii. 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



229 



Jansenius, and numberless kindred errors, have been condemned : the 
purity of Christian morals has been vindicated against relaxed casuists, 
and the sweetness of the yoke of Christ has been maintained, despite of 
the repulsive austerity of innovators : discipline has been enforced, or 
mitigated, as circumstances rendered expedient : and all things appertain- 
ing to the government of the Universal Church have been regulated by 
the foresight, discretion, and zeal of the Roman Bishop. He has had the 
services and aid of enlightened counsellors, composing the various standing 
committees or congregations of cardinals, to whose examination he commits 
the different matters on which he is to pronounce judgment; he has also 
been seconded and sustained by his colleagues throughout the world : but 
the Providence of God, as if to cut short the disputes of the schools, has 
suffered this long period to elapse without a General Council, as was also 
the case in the first three centuries of the Church. The great Leibnitz 
strongly states the necessity of a permanent authority in the Church, 
such as is exercised by the Bishop of Rome : " As from the impossibility 
of the bishops frequently leaving the people over whom they are placed, 
it is not possible to hold a council continuously, or even frequently, while 
at the same time the person of the Church must always live and subsist, 
in order that its will may be ascertained, it was a necessary consequence, 
by the divine law itself, insinuated in Christ's most memorable words to 
Peter, (when He committed to him specially the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven, as well as when He thrice emphatically commanded him to feed 
His sheep,) and uniformly believed in the Church, that one among the 
apostles, and the successor of this one among the bishops, was invested 
with pre-eminent power ; in order that by him, as the visible centre of 
unity, the body of the Church might be bound together ; the common 
necessities be provided for : a council, if necessary, be convoked, and 
when convoked, directed j and that in the interval between councils, pro- 
vision might be made lest the commonwealth of the faithful sustain any 
injury. And as the ancients unanimously attest that the apostle Peter 
governed the Church, suffered martyrdom, and appointed his successor in 
the city of Rome, the capital of the world ; and as no other bishop has 
ever been recognised under this relation, we justly acknowledge the 
Bishops of Rome to be chief of all the rest."* It seems to me super- 
fluous to discuss what power a Council may exercise in certain extra- 
ordinary circumstances, since the actual government of the Church is 
plainly in the hands of the Pontiff. If the object be to point out the 
limits of pontifical power, and the remedy for its abuse, I must avow that 
there is but a faint ground of hope in an assembly, the holding of which 
is generally of extreme difficulty, if not utterly impracticable. Our true 
security lies in the nature of the pontifical authority, which, being derived 



»- « Systema Theologicum," translated by Dr. Russell. 



230 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



from Christ, is essentially just and paternal. Our hope is in the ever- 
watchful Providence which guards the Church, that the passions of men 
may not defeat the divine counsels. If in calamitous circumstances an 
extraordinary remedy be necessary, the same Providence will apply it: 
hut the discussion of the powers of an assembly convened at such a crisis, 
is, in my opinion, safely left to its members. 

It is not within my scope to explain in detail the power which the Pope 
exercises, in pronouncing judgment on the sanctity of deceased servants 
of God, or in granting indulgences, or in many like ways, as it has not 
been my intention to write a treatise with the precision of a canonist or 
scholastic divine. My object has been to give a just idea of the main 
exercise of pontifical authority. 

It is unnecessary to define the extent of papal prerogative, in order to 
determine the necessity of admitting the primacy. If Christ has es- 
tablished a general governor of the Church in the person of Peter, his 
authority must be acknowledged such, as it is exercised and admitted by 
the Church herself. Divine Providence will not suffer its practical 
exhibition at any period to differ essentially from its original institution, 
so that if it be exercised with more or less amplitude in different ages, 
this must be ascribed to the change of circumstances, rather than to any 
substantial alteration in its character. The overthrow of the patriarchal 
thrones by the Mussulman rendered the intervention of the Bishop of 
Rome in the affairs of the East more direct and frequent than while they 
subsisted. The encroachments of the civil power in various countries 
made the Pontiffs more jealous of their prerogatives, and the abuses of 
privileges once enjoyed by the clergy and people, in the election of the 
prelates, caused their withdrawal. God has always come to the aid of 
the Popes in their struggles for truth, and the liberty of the Church, and 
made their worst enemies instruments for the manifestation of the au- 
thority divinely entrusted to them. By loosening the ties which con- 
nected the Church with the State, under the ancient dynasty, her freedom 
in France has been greatly advanced, and sound views with regard to the 
papal power have been effectually diffused. Even the overthrow of the 
ancient French hierarchy, so venerable and illustrious, the closing of the 
celebrated universities, and other calamitous events of the revolution, 
which threatened the extinction of Christianity, resulted in an exercise of 
pontifical authority, which, by a single act, decided a thousand vain dis- 
putes, and created a new order of things, in which the Chief Bishop and 
the French prelates are united by more intimate ties. Setting aside all 
minor considerations, the reader should fix his whole attention on the 
main controversy, since, as Mr. Palmer remarks : " The doctrine of the 
primacy of the Bishop of Rome over the Universal Church, is the point 
On which all other controversies between the Roman and other churches 
turn : for if our Lord J esus Christ instituted any official supremacy of 



PAPAL PREROGATIVES. 



231 



one bishop in the Catholic Church to endure always : and if this supre- 
macy be inherited by the Bishop of Rome, it will readily follow that the 
Catholic Church is limited to those of the Roman obedience, so that the 
Councils, doctrines, and traditions of those churches are invested with the 
authority of the whole Christian world/'* 



* A Treatise on the Church of Christ, by Key. "William Palmer, M. A., part vii toI. ii. 
p. 451. Americ. edit. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



It is important to establish, beyond all contradiction, the fact that the 
present Bishop of Rome, by uninterrupted succession, holds the place of 
Peter. We are aided in this undertaking by the labors of the venerable 
ancients, several of whom gave lists of the Roman Bishops from the 
apostle down to their own time. St. Irenaeus enumerated them as far as 
Eleutherius, who was still living when he wrote.* The historian Euse- 
bius, availing himself of authentic documents, continued the series far 
on in the fourth century.f St. Optatus closed his list with the name of 
Siricius, who, in his day, occupied the apostolic chair.J St. Augustin 
gave a similar catalogue, and challenged the Donatists to examine closely 
the order of succession : " Come to us, brethren, if you wish to be en- 
grafted on the vine. We are afflicted in beholding you lying cut off 
from it. Count over the bishops from the very See of Peter, and mark 
in that list of fathers how one succeeded the other. This is the rock 

AGAINST WHICH THE PROUD GATES OF HELL DO NOT PREVAIL."§ 

The schism of Novatian, who, after the death of Pope Fabian, in the 
year 253, set himself up in opposition to Cornelius, his lawful successor, 
served to mark more clearly the series of Pontiffs, and the authority 
with which they presided in the Church. In vain did the usurper, send- 
ing his partisans to Africa, and to the churches generally, " seek to draw 
into schism the members of Christ, and to divide and rend asunder the 
one body of the Catholic Church." They were told by St. Cyprian and 
his colleagues, that " it was impious to forsake their mother," and that 
"if they professed themselves followers of the Glospel, and of Christ, 
they should return to the Church." || The letter of Cornelius, announcing 
his ordination, according to ancient custom, was publicly read in the 
Church of Carthage, and letters were despatched by Cyprian, as primate 
of Africa, to the bishops of his province, in which they were admonished 
to write in reply, and send ambassadors to the Pontiff, as Cyprian himself 



* L. iii., adv. hser. f Hist. Eccl., I. iii. e. iv 

J De Schism, Donat., 1. ii. § Ps. contra partem Donat. 

|| Cyprianus Cornelio, ep. i., inter Rom. Pont., ep. i., Coustant, t. i. col. 126. 
232 



UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 233 



liad done.* The adherents of Novatian are represented by the African 
primate as " refusing the bosom and embrace of her, who is root and ma- 
trix," by which terms he designates, not only in this passage, bnt fre- 
quently elsewhere, the local Church of Rome, from which, as from a root, 
the African churches had grown, and in which, as in the maternal womb, 
they had been conceived : figurative expressions which he applies to it 
also in reference to the whole Catholic Church. The creation of a rival 
bishop, in the person of Novatian, is declared to be " contrary to the mys- 
tery originally delivered of the divine organization of the Church, f and 
of Catholic unity."! Although this might be said, in a qualified sense, 
of any schismatical ordination, it manifestly implies, in the mind of 
Cyprian, a special divine ordinance in regard to the Bishop of Rome, as 
centre of Catholic unity. 

The letter which the zeal of St. Cyprian led him to address to the schis- 
matics, exhorting them " to return to their mother, that is, the Catholic 
Church," resulted in the conversion of several of them, who, in the most 
explicit terms, solemnly recognised the lawful Pontiff. "We know," 
said they, on occasion of their public reconciliation, " that Cornelius Was 
chosen by God Almighty and Christ our Lord, Bishop of the most holy 
Catholic Church. We are not ignorant that there is one God, one Christ 
the Lord, whom we have confessed, § one Holy Spirit, and that there 
should be one bishop in the Catholic Church." || The obvious force of 
this language is such as to present to us Cornelius as Bishop of the whole 
Church, since a local bishop could not be styled, without qualification, 
Bishop of the Catholic Church. St. Cyprian urges strongly the titles of 
the lawful Pontiff to veneration, and regards his opponents as cut off 
from the communion of the Church. "Cornelius," he remarks, "was 
made bishop in accordance with the judgment of God, and of His Christ, 
with the testimony of almost all the clergy ; and he was selected from the 
college of aged priests and good men, at a time when no one had been 
appointed before him • and when the place of Fabian, that is, the place 
of Peter, and the dignity of the priestly chair, was vacant, which place 
being occupied by him according to the will of God ; and he being sup- 
ported therein by the consent of us all, whosoever now seeks to become 
bishop, must necessarily be without, nor can he who does not hold the 
unity of the Church have ecclesiastical ordination. Whosoever he be, 
though he vaunt himself, and put forward great claims, he is a profane 
man, a stranger, he is without. And since after the first there can be 
no second, whosoever was made bishop after the one who alone should be 



* Apud Coustant, ep. ii. t. i. col. 128. 
f " Divinse dispositionis." 
J Ibidem, ep. iii. col. 131. 

$ They had confessed Christ as Lord before the heathen tribunals. 
|| Quoted in letter of Cornelius to Cyprian. 



234 UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 



such, is not the second : he is no bishop."* This may imply a denial of 
the validity of the ordination, conformably to the opinion of Cyprian, in 
regard to sacraments administered out of unity : but what now concerns 
us, is, that Cornelius was believed to hold the place of Peter, and that 
his opponent was regarded as an alien from the Church. Thus, in the 
Providence of God, this schism served to make more manifest the rela- 
tion of the Bishop of Rome to the bishops of the Church throughout the 
world, and to render more evident his succession to the place of Peter. 

The intrusion of Felix, in the middle of the fourth century, into the 
Apostolic See, during a year and three months, by the power of the Arian 
Emperor Constantius, who caused Liberius, the lawful Pope, to be dragged 
into exile, made no breach in the series, since the forced suspension of 
the pontifical administration did not take away the authority. - )" Vigilius, 
in like manner, in the sixth century, through the influence of the Em- 
press Theodora, for two years usurped the place of Sylverius, after whose 
death he was recognised by the Church at large, having atoned for his 
unlawful occupancy of the chair by the integrity with which he fulfilled 
its duties. No doubt as to the succession can be raised in consequence 
of the schismatic rivalry of the deacon Ursicinus, who, with armed satel- 
lites, opposed Damasus ; of the archdeacon Eulalius, who set himself up 
against Boniface ; of Caelius Laurentius, who disputed the election of 
Symmachus \ of the priests Theodore and Peter, who resisted the lawful 
claims of Conon j of Theophylactus, a layman, who by violence held pos- 
session of the See for thirteen months, to the prejudice of Paul; or of 
Zinzinus, the adversary of Eugenius. In all these cases, the lawful Pope 
prevailed over his opponents, after a short struggle, and his rights were 
acknowledged by the universal Church. It is not to be wondered that a 
station so exalted should attract the ambitious, whose elevation was justly 
resisted by the friends of religion. Hence it should be no matter of sur- 
prise, that thirty instances of schism, on occasion of papal elections, are 
enumerated by Church historians : but thanks are due to the Providence 
which always guards the Church, that, in most instances, they were of 
short duration, and that eventually no doubt remained as to the legitimate 
successor of Peter. The fidelity with which they have been recorded, 
strengthens the evidence that the succession was maintained. 

The relations subsisting between the Popes and the emperors of the 
West, afforded a pretext for imperial interference, which often resulted in 
schisms of a more or less disastrous character; while the national 
jealousy of the Romans, and the want of any permanent form of civil 
government at home, led sometimes to results equally to be deplored. In 
the middle of the ninth century, the Emperor Louis II. lent his authority 
to the priest Anastasius, in his aggressions on Benedict III., who, how- 



* Ad Antonian. 



f Some think that Felix acted as Vicar of Liberius. 



O'BROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 



235 



ever, soon recovered his power. The close of the same century was dis- 
graced by the struggles of Sergius, the deacon, against Pope Formosus, 
and of the anti-pope, styled Boniface VI., against Stephen VII. The 
opening of the tenth century witnessed the forced abdication of Leo Y. to 
sive place to Christopher, who in his turn was ejected by Sergius. The 
Emperor Otho I., intruded the anti-pope Leo Till, to the prejudice of 
the rights of John XII. and of Benedict Y., who, on the death of John, 
was chosen by the clergy and people of Rome. On the other hand, the 
imperial authority supported Gregory Y., a lawful occupant of the See, 
whose right was disputed by John of Piacenza, aided by the Boman pre- 
fect Crescentius. St. Henry, the emperor, lent his aid to expel Gregory, 
whom the Bomans intruded into the place of Benedict Yin. Three pre- 
tenders to the power of the keys appeared before the middle of the 
eleventh century; the right of Benedict IX., who was intruded into the 
chair by his father, the Count of Tusculum,* being contested by Sylves- 
ter III. and John XX. A compromise of their claims, brought about by 
Gregory YL, terminated this unhappy struggle, and the abdication of 
Gregory himself, whose pecuniary sacrifices to satisfy the contending par- 
ties, left bis own election open to the charge of simony, led to a perma- 
nent peace. A series of holy Pontiffs, of German origin, elevated to the 
See of Peter through the influence or with the assent of the emperor, 
healed the wounds which disorderly intruders had inflicted on the 
Church ; but after the middle of the eleventh century, Mincius, Count 
of Tasculum, rose against Nicholas U. 3 the lawful Pontiff; and again, 
Cadolaus Pallavicini disputed the right of Alexander II. St. Gregory 
YII. had the affliction to witness the creation of an anti-pope without living 
see his downfall; yet the Church at large easily distinguished the series 
of lawful Pontiffs from the usurper, who, during twenty-one years, took the 
title of Bishop of Rome. Aginulph, styling himself Sylvester III., pressed 
on the footsteps of the anti-pope Clement III., and Gregory Yin. (as Mau- 
rice Burdin styled himself ) followed, supported by the Emperor Henry Y. 
ILo submission of Victor IY.. the successor of the anti-pope Anacletus II., 
terminated a schism which had lasted eight years, during the pontificate of 
Innocent H. In a similar way, a schism which broke out under Alexan- 
der III. was happily extinguished by the submission of Calixtus in., the 
successor of two anti-popes. Peter de Corbario, whom the Emperor Louis 
of Bavaria intruded into the Apostolic See, sought and obtained pardon 
of his usurpation from the lawful Pontiff, John XXII. In the last two 
schisms which afflicted the Church, the submission of each pretender put 
an end to all doubt : Clement Yffl. having implored pardon of Martin V., 
and Felix Y. having yielded to Eugenius IY. During four hundred 
years, the Church has been free from this awful calamity. In all the in- 



* Fraicati. 



236 UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 



stances, which I have rapidly reviewed, the succession was manifestly 
uninterrupted, because the schisms generally were of very short duration, 
and the pretensions of the usurpers were, for the most part, destitute of 
plausibility, resting chiefly on imperial power, or factious violence, while 
the true Popes were easily discernible by the regularity of their election, 
and their unswerving devotedness to the great interests of religion. In 
cases of doubt, the final submission of the claimants to the authority of 
the Pontiff, recognised by the Church at large, or the extinction of the 
schism by the demise of the pretender, made manifest, beyond all contra- 
diction, the true successor of Peter. 

The only case of apparent difficulty is the schism which began under 
Urban VI., towards the close of the fourteenth century, and continued 
about thirty-seven years. After the death of Gregory XL, at Rome, 
to which he had returned from Avignon, fear being entertained that 
the cardinals, who were chiefly natives of France, would elect a French- 
man, who might establish his residence at Avignon, where a series 
of French Popes had resided, the Romans surrounded the conclave, 
and with threats insisted that a Roman, or at least an. Italian, should 
be chosen Pope. Under the apprehension of actual violence, the car- 
dinals hastened to bring their proceedings to a close, by electing the 
Archbishop of Bari, who assumed the name of Urban VI. Whatever 
objection existed to the election, as not having been made freely, seemed 
to be removed by the subsequent acquiescence of the cardinals, who, 
during four months, continued to acknowledge him, in public documents 
addressed to the bishops throughout the world. However, at the expira- 
tion of that time, several of them fled from Rome, and under the pretext 
that the former election was null, chose Robert, Count of Geneva, 
who assumed the name of Clement VII., and abode at Avignon. The 
opinions of men being divided, the nations supported one or other of the 
claimants; France, Castile, and other countries adhering to Clement, as 
the free choice of the electors; while Germany and England acknow- 
ledged Urban, on account of the priority of his election, and its free rati- 
fication by the electors during a considerable time. It soon became 
difficult for the most conscientious and enlightened men to pronounce 
with certainty which of the two claimants was entitled to occupy the 
apostolic chair. The demise of both did not terminate the contest : since 
a usurper, Benedict XIII., as Peter de Luna, the successor of Clement, was 
styled, sat at Avignon above twenty years, while Boniface IX., Innocent 
VII., and Gregory XII., continued the Roman series. To relieve the 
Church from the scandal of these conflicting pretensions, some cardinals 
of each obedience, or party, resolved on summoning a Council at Pisa, and 
requiring the two pretenders to submit their claims to the judgment of 
the assembled fathers ; but neither would recognise the authority of this 
tribunal. The assembly, nothing daunted by this denial of its compe- 



UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOrS OF ROME. 



237 



tenev, proceeded to depose both as guilty of contumacy, schism, and 
heresy, and elected Peter Filargo to the vacant chair, under the title of 
Alexander Y. St. Antonine, and many others, deeming the proceedings 
utterly void, refused to recognise the new claimant, whose election served 
only to aggravate the evil. His death, after ten months, gave occasion to 
the election of Balthassar Cossa, under the name of John XXII. ; who, 
in order to extinguish this dire schism, summoned a General Council to 
be held at Constance. In this assembly, he himself, being deposed, by 
his acquiescence in the sentence put an end to all question as to the com- 
petency of his judges. Gregory XII. refused to recognise the legitimacy 
of the Council, regarding it as convened by a usurper of the Apostolic 
See, but he consented to abdicate, on the observance of some for- 
malities which served to save his pretensions. Neither threats nor 
persuasion could influence Peter de Luna, whom the Council at length 
deposed. The general acquiescence of all Christian nations in the 
election of Martin V., which ensued, left no room to question the legiti- 
macy of the proceedings, although the deposed pretender continued to 
assert his claims, which, at his death, he charged the few cardinals who 
still adhered to him, to perpetuate. His successor, after four years, re- 
nounced his empty title, to enjoy the communion of the Pontiff, whom 
the whole Church recognised. 

This long schism, however, involves the succession of the Bishops of 
Rome in no doubt. It may be questioned whether those who sat at 
Rome, or those who sat at Avignon were the true successors of Peter; 
although the judgment of the learned generally seems to have decided in 
favor of the former : but there is no ground for questioning the fact of 
the succession. One or the other series was certainly legitimate, and 
both having terminated, in the Council of Constance, in the election of 
Martin V., he was the undoubted heir of the apostolic authority, through 
whichsoever channel it flowed.* 

The long absence of the Popes from Rome, during their stay at Avig- 
non, which, like the captivity of Babylon, as the Romans sarcastically 
designate- it, extended to about seventy years, affords no reason for ques- 
tioning the succession, because the authority of a bishop does not depend 



* I may be allowed, by way of illustration, to refer to a collision of claims between 
two courts in one of the United States, within my own remembrance. The Legislature 
of Kentucky, being dissatisfied with the proceedings of the Court of Appeals, the Su- 
preme Judiciary, passed an act for its reorganization, in order, by this summary proceed- 
ing, to avoid the tardy and uncertain process of impeaching the judges. Accordingly, a 
new court was organized, in conformity with this law, and judges were appointed, who 
proceeded to take cognizance of suits brought before them. The judges of the old court 
considered that the new law was unconstitutional; and, disregarding it, continued in the 
exercise of their judicial power. For several years these rival tribunals existed, until, at 
length, a compromise was effected: yet no one will pretend that the conflicting claims 
destroyed the judiciary of the State, or the special court in question. 



238 UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 



on his residence in his see. Those Pontiffs who resided at Avignon 
were truly Bishops of Rome, having been elected under this title by 
the college of cardinals to fill the place of Peter. They governed that 
See by means of a Cardinal Vicar, whilst they personally applied them- 
selves to the government of the universal Church. 

The long vacancies which have sometimes occurred in the Roman See, 
do not interfere with the succession, since, in the general opinion of man- 
kind, they were not so protracted as to destroy the moral connection 
between the incumbents. Some interval must necessarily elapse between 
the demise of one Pontiff and the election of his successor. The longest 
space which has been assigned to a papal interregnum is three years and 
eight months, after the death of Marcellinus ; which computation, how- 
ever, is generally denied by the learned. The longest actual vacancy was 
during two years and nine months, on the demise of Clement IV. 
Either period was not such an interruption in the long series of Pontiffs 
as to effect a moral separation in its connecting links. In reality, the 
interval was much less than it appears, because it was counted up to the 
day of the consecration of the new Pope, which was often long delayed 
in order to obtain the assent of the Eastern emperor. 

The simplicity of some writers once gave currency to a ridiculous fable, 
which even the Calvinist Blondell, the skeptical Bayle, and the infidel 
Gibbon, have shown to be inconsistent with well-ascertained facts of his- 
tory. In some interpolated copies of 3Iarian Scotus, a writer of the 
eleventh century, it was stated, that an English female, in male attire, 
pursued her studies at the schools of Athens, and in process of time suc- 
ceeded in being elevated to the papal chair, on the death of Leo IV. 
After two years five months and four days of pontifical administration, 
her sex is said to have been discovered by her being delivered of a child, 
in a solemn procession to the church of St. John of Lateran. This ill- 
concocted tale, which is in itself incredible, concerning Pope Joan, as she 
is styled, is totally irreconcilable with the statements of contemporary 
writers, who assure us that on the death of Leo IV., which took place on 
the 17th July, 855, Benedict III. " immediately'' succeeded, and was 
consecrated on the 1st September of the same year. Gibbon acknow- 
ledges that "the contemporary Anastasius indissolubly links the death of 
Leo and the elevation of Benedict." (fflico, mox.y* 

A ridiculous precaution is alleged to have been adopted against the re- 
currence of the imposture : but it is enough for me to explain the real 
object of the ceremony to which allusion is made. From the year 1191, 
down to the time of Leo X., on occasion of taking possession of the 
basilic of St. John of Lateran, it was usual, among other ceremonies, to 
place the new Pontiff in front of the portico, on a white marble chair, 



* Decline and Fall, ch. xlix., A.D. S00-1060. 



UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 239 



which, from the verse chaunted on the occasion, was popularly styled 
stercoraria: " Raising up the needy from the earth, and lifting up the 
poor out of the dunghill, that He may place him with princes, with the 
princes of His people." The object was evidently to inspire the Pontiff 
with becoming sentiments of humility, and to give praise to God for 
having raised him to the high dignity of prince and ruler in His 
Church.* 

Although the fable of Pope Joan is now utterly exploded, some still 
refer to it for mere annoyance ; not reflecting that what could not take 
place in the Catholic Church, unless by an incredible combination of 
circumstances favorable to imposture, is really exhibited in the Church 
of England, by a necessary consequence of the principles broached on its 
separation from the See of Peter. The Sovereign, for the time being, 
was proclaimed head of the Church throughout his dominions : but, as if 
to put to shame the abettors of this system, God permitted, on the death 
of Henry VIII , the boy Edward to succeed him, who was followed by 
Mary and Elizabeth. The former queen hastened to divest herself of 
the title and authority which the law ascribed to her in ecclesiastical mat- 
ters ; whilst Elizabeth unblushingly asserted her supremacy, and struck 
terror into the bishops of her own creation. f When she was informed 
by her prime minister that the professors at Lambeth had pronounced a 
theological censure on certain propositions concerning free-will and pre- 
destination, she called Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, to her 
presence, and with bitter irony intimated to him the legal penalties, to 
which his connivance at this encroachment on her royal prerogative 
subjected him. " Whitgift," said she, " I hear that you are amassing 
great wealth for my use." The archbishop replied, that his wealth was 
not great, but that all he possessed was at her Majesty's service. She 
resumed : " You fancy that you speak as a dutiful subject; but I main- 
tain that all you have is already mine, by the law of the land, since you 
have incurred praemunire." The prelate, understanding the drift of her 
language, pleaded that the Lambeth professors had not meant to pro- 
nounce a . decision, but had merely expressed a theological opinion ; 
which, however, in order to appease her, he promised to suppress.}; She 
suspended Archbishop Grindall from the exercise of episcopal jurisdic- 
tion, and threatened to make examples of bishops, in case they neglected 



* The whole ceremony is described in verse by Cardinal James, in his second book on 
the Coronation of Boniface VIII., which is found in the Bollandists, t. iv., Maji, p. 471. 
See also Mabillon, t. i., Mussei Italici, p. 1, p. 59. 

f "Ve aqui una cosa admirabile. Al mismo tiempo que los Protestantes se esforzaban 
a insultarnos con la disparatada especie de una Papisa, elegida en Roma, ellos erigieron 
otra Papisa en Inglaterra, constituyendo cabeza de la Iglesia Anglicana a su adorada 
Reyna." Cartas Eruditas por D. Fr. Benito Gr. Feyjoo, t. v. c. iii. p. 146. 

| Articulorum Lambethoe exhibitorum historia, juxta exemplar Londini editum, A.D. 
1601. P. 6, et seq. 



240 UNBROKEN SUCCESSION OF THE BISHOPS OF ROME. 



to suppress certain religious exercises. Such was her jealousy of any 
interference with her rights as head of the Church ! 

The unbroken succession of the Bishops of Rome is a fact the most 
unquestionable, established by direct and collateral evidence, and 
manifest from the continued exercise of the pontifical authority. No 
difficulties that may be raised in regard to interregnums, rival claimants, 
or intruders, can create a doubt as to the public exercise of power in 
every age by the Bishop of Rome as successor of Peter. The continu- 
ance of the succession is a moral miracle, which may well be reckoned 
among the most splendid evidences of Christianity. " The Papacy 
itself," says Dr. Nevin, " is a wonder of wonders. There is nothing like 
it in all history besides."* Dynasties have succeeded one to another; 
powerful empires and kingdoms have passed away ; republics have been 
destroyed by the conflicting elements within them ; yet the See of Peter 
remains, and an heir of his authority is always found, whether taken 
from low estate, or of noble parentage. The numberless internal causes 
of dissolution, and violence from without, do not affect its continuance. 
The city may be trodden down by the barbarian conqueror, and the 
Pontiff may perish; but there is a vitality in the See that renders its 
destruction impossible. Those inquirers who now stand at the portals of 
the Church, perplexed and embarrassed, should say to themselves with 
Augustin : " Shall we hesitate to take refuge in the bosom of that 
Church which from the Apostolic See, through the succession of bishops, 
even by the acknowledgment of mankind generally, has obtained supreme 
authority, heretics raging around in vain, condemned as they have been, 
partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly by the authority 
of Councils, partly also by the splendor of miracles ? To reject her 
authority is truly either the height of impiety, or desperate presump- 
tion. "t 



* Early Christianity, M. R,, Nov., 1851. 



| De util. cred., c. vii. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



1 1. — IMPERIAL INTERPOSITION. 

No authority in sacred things was ever acknowledged by the Church to 
reside in emperor, king, or other potentate, even when he was a Christian, 
although they were sometimes implored to sustain, by the civil arm, the 
rights of lawful prelates against ambitious and disorderly men, who en- 
dangered or violated public tranquillity. In this sense, as also in regard 
to the general support which they owe to religion, the Council of Trent- 
declared that " God wills Catholic princes to be the protectors of our holy 
faith and of the Church/'* The Council of Aquileja besought the Em- 
perors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius, to use their authority, and 
prevent Ursicinus from disturbing Damasus, the legitimate occupant of the 
See of Peter, f Eulalius, having ambitiously set himself up in opposition 
to Boniface, the lawful Pope, the Emperor Honorius, on the report of Sym- 
machus, ordered Boniface to be banished from the city ; but on receiving 
from the Roman clergy a correct statement of the facts, and being in- 
formed of the return of Eulalius, contrary to his command, he supported 
the rights of Boniface. To provide for public tranquillity, he decreed 
that, in case of a contested election, both candidates should be banished 
from the city. J This law is said to have been enacted in consequence 
of an application made by Boniface himself, for some measure to prevent 
tumults. 

Odoacer, King of the Heruli, having in 476 established himself King of 
Italy, on the death of Simplicius in 483, alleged an agreement made with 
him by the deceased Pontiff that the Prefect, in the name of the king, 
should be present at the election of his successor; but the claim was re- 
sisted by the clergy, and the concession disregarded as a nullity. Sym- 
machus, chosen Pope in 498, forbade all laymen, even of royal dignity, to 
interfere in the election ; yet Theodoric, King of Italy, in 526, forced Felix 
IV. on the Roman clergy and senate, who reluctantly acquiesced, on con- 



* Sess. xxvi. c. xx., de Ref. f Cone. Aquil. ep., t. L, cone. Hard., col. 837. 

% Ibid., col. 1237. 

16 241 



242 



PAPAL ELECTION. 



dition that the ancient freedom of election should be thenceforward in- 
violable. The royal assent or confirmation of the election -was, however, 
to be sought, which was to follow as a matter of course, if the proceed- 
ings were regular. King Athalaric, successor of Theodoric, required the 
payment of three thousand crowns of gold on the occasion. 

On the extinction of the Gothic power in Italy in 553, the Emperor 
Justinian exercised the same prerogative of confirming the election, in 
the person of Pelagius I., chosen in 555. The confirmation was not 
waited for on the election of Pelagius II. in 578, it being impossible to 
obtain it, since the city of Rome was actually besieged by the Lombards. 
It was also neglected in the case of John IV., elected in 640, and of 
Martin in 649. The tax, which seemed to be the chief object of the im- 
perial court, was remitted by Constantine Pogonatus in 680 ; who, in 
684, completely restored the ancient freedom of election, so as not to 
require any longer the imperial assent. His successor, Justinian II. , 
renewed the claim in a mitigated form, allowing the exarch of Ravenna 
to assent in his name, and thus prevent delay. There is no instance of 
any election having been set aside by the emperor, who regarded the right 
of confirmation as a mere measure of finance. 

The Western emperors soon emulated the prerogatives of those of 
Constantinople. Louis the Pious, in 818, required the Pope to send 
him an embassy immediately after his consecration. In 824 he sent his 
son Lothaire to Rome, to terminate the contest which had arisen on the 
election of Eugenius II., who was opposed by the anti-pope Zinzinus; 
whence the young prince took occasion to publish an imperial edict, 
requiring that the consecration of the Pope should take place in presence 
of the imperial ambassadors, if the emperor himself were not present. 
This regulation is stated by Pagi to have originated with Eugenius him- 
self, and to have been confirmed by John IX. in 898, through an anxiety 
to prevent tumults and irregular promotions. The ambassador of Lo- 
thaire came to Rome in 827, to examine the election of Gregory IV., 
and in 855 the report of the election of Benedict III. was forwarded to 
the imperial court for examination. 

The canonical freedom of election was vindicated from time to time by 
decrees of the Pontiffs. Constantine, an anti-pope, having obtained pos- 
session of the See, by the aid of armed men, Stephen IV., in 769, forbade 
any layman, of any rank whatever, to interfere in papal elections.* 
Adrian III., in 884, decreed that the Pontiff elect might be consecrated 
without the presence of the king or his ambassadors. 

It does not appear that the emperors exercised or claimed any right 
over the election, beyond the mere examination of its regularity, until 
the middle of the tenth century. After Otho I., in 962, had been 



* Cone. Rom., act. iiL, apud Holstenium, in collect. Rom., par. i. p. 260. 



PAPAL ELECTION. 



243 



crowned emperor by John XII., he exacted an oath from the clergy and 
people, that no Pope should thenceforward be consecrated without pre- 
viously making, in presence of the imperial ambassadors, or of the son of 
the emperor, or of the public, a promise which is not distinctly specified, 
but is described as intended " for the satisfaction of all and for their 
future preservation," such as Leo IV. had spontaneously made. This 
pledge seems to have been directed to secure the imperial interests in 
Rome. Otho soon acted as if he could at will create and depose the 
Pope, having attempted to set aside John, and substitute the anti-pope 
Leo VIII. In this usurpation he was imitated by two emperors of the 
same name. 

Henry I. restored the freedom of papal elections, which his successors 
Conrad and the second Henry also respected ; although the latter required 
that the imperial ambassadors should be present at the consecration. 
It must be owned that the disorders of popular elections at Rome, and 
the violent intrusion of several unworthy men, gave an appearance of ex- 
pediency to this intervention, which might have been salutary, if it did 
not prepare the way for unjust influence, amounting to control. Alex- 
ander II. directed that the imperial authority should be awaited, unless 
dangerous circumstances forbade delay. 

The imperial influence was exercised beneficially in several instances. 
At the solicitation of the clergy and people of Rome, Henry II. recom- 
mended Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, for promotion ; who, accordingly, 
under the name of Clement II., adorned the Apostolic throne by his 
virtues. Bruno, Bishop of Toul, was recommended by the Council of 
Worms to the emperor, and by him proposed to the Roman clergy; but 
the holy bishop entered Rome as a private individual, and refused to 
exercise any authority until the clergy and people freely elected him. 
He is known to us as St. Leo IX. Gebhard, Bishop of Aichstat, who 
was reluctantly yielded by the emperor to the urgent prayers of Hilde- 
brand, filled the See as Victor II. 

The deference shown to the emperors did not amount to an acknowledg- 
ment of any strict right on their part to control the elections, as is evident 
from the fact that many Popes were consecrated without awaiting the im- 
perial assent. Leo IV., in 847, was consecrated in the absence of the 
ambassadors ; and only five out of nineteen Popes who lived in the ninth 
century waited for the confirmation of their election. Stephen X. was 
consecrated within a few days after the death of Victor II., when it was 
impossible to have received the confirmation. When in the minority of 
Henry IV. the right was claimed by the Regency, in virtue of an alleged 
grant of Nicholas II. to the emperor, and complaint was made that Alex- 
ander II. had been consecrated without the imperial assent, the repre- 
sentatives of the Holy See strongly denied that even a Pope could give 
to the emperor a right of peremptory control, since the election of the 



244 



PAPAL ELECTION. 



Vicar of Christ must necessarily be free. The concession was shown to 
be a personal privilege granted in critical times, to be exercised without 
detriment to the liberty of election. St. Gregory VII., by soliciting the 
emperor to withhold his assent and defeat his election, seemed to acknow- 
ledge in him a power of veto ; but he grounded it on usage, or on the 
concession of his predecessors : while otherwise he is known to have 
zealously maintained the freedom of the Church, as of divine right. 
From his time the imperial pretensions were either altogether abandoned, 
or defeated by the constancy of the clergy. Gibbon remarks : " The 
removal of a foreign influence restored and endeared the Shepherd to his 
flock. Instead of the arbitrary or venal nomination of a German court, 
the Vicar of Christ was freely chosen by the College of Cardinals, most 
of whom were either natives or inhabitants of the city. The applause of 
the magistrates and people confirmed his election : and the ecclesiastical 
power that was obeyed in Sweden and Britain, had been ultimately 
derived from the suffrage of the Romans.'"* 

From a careful consideration of documents and facts, it results that no 
right of interference in the election of the Head of the Church exists in 
emperors, or kings, or earthly rulers of any kind, and that an attempt on 
their part to control it is a violation of the liberty of the Church. The 
privileges which they once exercised were granted them by the Church 
herself, as the guardians of public order, in order to secure regularity in 
the proceedings, and the support of the civil power for the elect. When- 
ever they were used in an absolute or arbitrary way, or were assumed in- 
dependently of the concession or assent of the Pontiffs, they were 
usurpations, which can neither prove nor give any right whatever. 

In modern times it has been customary for the electors to treat with 
respect the remonstrances of the chief Catholic powers, Austria, France, 
and Spain, so as not to urge the promotion of an individual objected to 
by any of them, provided the objection be made before the election is 
completed by the consent of two-thirds of the electors. Each power can 
exercise this prerogative only in one instance. No strict right of veto, 
however, is acknowledged by this deference to the e&clusiva, or ammo- 
nizione pacijica, as this expression of the wishes of the crowned heads is 
called. Thus the liberty of the Church remains inviolate, while a just 
regard is had for the representatives of great national interests. 

§2.— MODE OF ELECTION. 

The plenitude of power with which the Pope is clothed, might appear 
to authorize him to provide a successor, when old age warns him of the 
approach of death, especially if he has reason to fear that intrigues, dis- 



* Decline and Fall, cti. lxix., A.D. 1000-1100. 



PAPAL ELECTION. 



245 



orders, and violence may occur during the vacancy of the See. The 
language used by Irenaeus in regard to Peter, who is said to have com- 
mitted to Linus the administration of the Church, may be understood of 
the appointment of a successor; but all antiquity teaches that the 
bishopric should not be as a legacy, dependent on the mere will of the 
actual incumbent. The elective principle, which was originally common 
to all episcopal sees, is still held sacred in regard to the Apostolic See, to 
which it is utterly forbidden to give the appearance of an inheritance. 
Hilary, in a Koman Council, declared that no Pope should choose his 
successor; which important declaration was repeated and confirmed by 
Pius IY. after the lapse of eleven centuries. Pius added that no Pope 
could, even with the assent of the cardinals, choose a coadjutor, with the 
right of succeeding him. Boniface II., in 530, designated Yigilius for 
his successor, with the view of preventing the intrusion of an unworthy 
incumbent by the King of the Goths ; but on maturer reflection, he com- 
mitted his decree to the flames, lest his example should give an heredi- 
tary appearance to the sacred office. "When Gregory XIY. lay at the 
point of death, he exhorted the cardinals to proceed to the election of his 
successor; which, however, they respectfully declined. Several Popes, 
on their death-bed, recommended to the cardinals the person whom they 
deemed most worthy to succeed, as Clement YIL, dying, said, that he 
would choose Cardinal Farnese, if the office could be bequeathed. His 
recommendation was adopted, but generally such expressions of desire 
were neglected. By a decree of Symmachus, in 499, renewed by Paul 
IY. in 1558, it is forbidden, under pain of excommunication, during the 
lifetime of the Pope to treat of his successor. It is likewise forbidden, 
under the same penalty, to make wagers concerning the future Pontiff, 
when the See is actually vacant, lest any person should use improper 
measures to obtain a choice favorable to his interests. 

It is beyond a doubt that the people, for many ages, had a great share 
in the election of bishops, although it does not appear that they had at 
any time a strict right of suffrage. Their favorable testimony had con- 
siderable weight, their just wishes were respected, and the clergy willingly 
aided in the promotion of those who were most likely to secure popular 
respect and obedience. In those times, however, the chief pastor did 
not fail to admonish the clergy, that they must not be driven forward by 
the popular impulse, which they should rather prudently direct and 
control. " The people," said St. Celestin, in the fifth century, " should 
be taught, not followed ; and we should admonish them, if they be ig- 
norant of what is lawful and what is forbidden, nor should we consent to 
them."* In the preceding age, the Council of Laodicea had decreed 
that the " multitude must not be allowed to make the election of those 



* Ad ep. Apulise. 



246 



PAPAL ELECTION. 



who are to be raised to the priesthood."* The publicity and popular 
character of the elections continued at Rome down to the twelfth century. 
Nicholas II., who in 1058 was elected by the clergy, in presence and 
with the concurrence of the people, decreed that the right of election 
belonged, in the first place, to the cardinal bishops, who were to fix upon 
the candidate, and next to the cardinal priests and deacons, whose con- 
currence was to be sought ; and that the clergy and people should express 
their assent, following the cardinals as guides. The people continued to 
be present at the elections, and, by their acclamations, signified their 
assent to the individual chosen by the cardinal bishops, with the consent 
of the clergy. Innocent II., in 1130, to remedy the disorders attendant 
on these popular assemblies, attempted to exclude the people from the 
election; but they rose in arms, and maintained their immemorial privi- 
leges, so that Eugene III., in 1145, was elected by the general wish of 
the clergy and people; and in 1154, the clergy and laity, with acclama- 
tion, enthroned Adrian IV. In the third Council of Lateran, held in 
1179, under Alexander III., it was decreed, that in case of a division at 
the election, the person having two-thirds of the votes of the cardinals 
should be acknowledged as true Pontiff. The people, consequently, 
thenceforward ceased to have any participation in the choice ; and they 
were effectually excluded from witnessing the election, when it became 
customary to hold it within an enclosure, called the conclave, which was 
occasionally done, even before it was specially decreed by Gregory X., 
in 1274. 

The exclusion of the laity from the elections was rendered necessary 
by the tumults and sanguinary scenes that oftentimes attended popular 
assemblies. It was the wish of Gregory of Nazianzum, so early as the 
fourth age, that the choice of the prelates of the Church were reserved to 
a small number of good men."]* This is verified in the body of cardinals, 
who are never more than seventy in number, as seventy elders aided 
Moses in the government of the people, and who generally are men of 
great experience and unblemished morals. Six of them are bishops of 
the neighboring Sees of Ostia, Porto, Albano, Preneste, Sabina, and 
Freseati. Fifty belong to the order of priests, and fourteen to that of 
deacons : all of whom have titles taken from the ancient Churches of 
Rome, over which they preside ; and consequently they are the chief 
clergy of the Roman Church. 

The election is conducted in a manner best calculated to result in a 
happy choice. A solemn mass is celebrated each day to implore the 
light of the Holy Ghost. A sermon is delivered at the opening of the 
conclave, in which the electors are exhorted to choose a worthy successor 
of Peter. All external influence is studiously excluded, no person being 



* Can. xiii., apud Hard., t. i. col. 784 



f Orat. xix. 



PAPAL ELECTION. 



247 



allowed to speak in secret, or to communicate by letter with any cardinal, 
under penalty of excommunication. Any elector, who, by gifts, promises, 
or entreaties, attempts to influence the votes of otters, incurs the same 
awful penalty. The election is made by ballot, care being taken, by the 
ingenious folding of the tickets, that no one can know how another has 
voted, and that no deception be practised in the counting of the votes. 
At the close of each ballot all the tickets are burnt. When the electors 
please, they make an open election, or without voting, rush, as it were, 
by general inspiration, to venerate as Pope the individual who is known 
to be acceptable to all. Each cardinal, when depositing his vote in the 
chalice, on the altar, solemnly swears that he gives it according to his 
conscientious judgment : " I call to witness Christ the Lord, who is to 
judge me, that I choose the person who, before God, I judge ought to be 
elected." Two-thirds of the electors must concur to a choice. Each 
morning and evening the ballot takes place ; and in case of no choice 
being made, a supplementary ballot immediately follows, in order to give 
the electors an opportunity to supply the number of votes necessary. 
This is called the accesso. The cardinals continue confined within the 
conclave, like jurors in a jury-room, until the election is made 



CHAPTER XX. 



$ 1. — CEREMONIES AFTER ELECTION. 

After the election of the Pope, his consent is demanded, and he is 
asked by what name he chooses to be thenceforward- called. The custom, 
which was introduced in the tenth century, of assuming a new name, 
although not originally so designed, corresponds with*the example of 
Simon, who received the name of Peter, on being called by our Lord. 
The Pope then kneels before the altar in prayer, and retires behind it to 
lay aside the robes of cardinal and assume those of Pontiff; clothed with 
which, he seats himself in front of it, on a chair, where he admits the 
cardinals to kiss his hand and embrace him. Wearing the mantle called 
the cope, and the episcopal mitre, he is then placed on the altar of the 
Sixtine chapel, where, as the representative and Vicar of Christ, he 
receives the homage of the sacred college, in a manner far more solemn 
and expressive. They kiss his foot, and also his hand covered with the 
sacred robe, and embrace him, approaching their cheek to his, on each 
side. The placing of him on the table of the vacant altar, probably 
arose from considerations of convenience, since the aged cardinals could 
scarcely perform the obeisance, unless he were in a high position. If, 
however, we regard it as designed to present him as representative of Him 
who is our Great High Priest, as well as victim, there is nothing in the 
rite which should shock our sensibilities or Christian feeling. This 
ceremony has been popularly styled adoration, in the free sense in which 
this term was generally used, corresponding with respect, veneration, or 
homage. Novaes justly remarks, that it does not even denote in this 
place veneration such as is given to the saints, but respect.* The Rubri- 
cists term it obedience, because used in token of submission to the au- 
thority of the Pontiff. The kissing of the foot is an ancient Oriental 
rite, expressive of honor and affection, and is peculiarly suitable to the 
apostolic office, since the feet are beautiful of him who proclaims to Sion : 



* " Con questo nome noi qui intendiamo col Cardinal Bellarmino un atto di rispetto." 
Introd. alle Vite* dei Ss. Pontef., per Giuseppe de Novaes. Roma, 1822. T. i. p. 237. 
248 



CEREMONIES. 



249 



« Thy God shall reign/'* The penitent kissed the feet of our Divine 
Master j and the devout women, who met Him after His resurrection, 
held fast His feet, no doubt kissing them affectionately. Cornelius, the 
centurion, cast himself at the feet of Simon Peter, venerating the mes- 
senger of God. From the acts of St. Susanna, a virgin who suffered 
martyrdom about the year 294, it appears that the custom of paying this 
mark of respect to the successors of the apostle existed at that early 
period, since Praspedigna is related to have kissed the feet of Pope Cajus, 
according to custom. The most powerful princes at various times gave 
this profound honor to the Popes. The Emperor Justin L, in 525, pros- 
trated himself at the feet of Pope John : Justinian I. honored Agapetus 
in like manner : Justinian II., with the imperial crown on his head, 
kissed the feet of Pope Constantine in 710 : Luitprand, King of the 
Lombards, kissed the feet of Gregory II. : Rachis honored Zacharias in 
the same way : Charlemagne gave the like honor to Adrian I. ; and, to 
pass over many other examples, the Emperor Charles V. honored Clement 
VII. and Paul III. with the same mark of veneration. No one who 
knows the war waged by Charles against Clement will ascribe this 
homage to pusillanimity, or superstition. Since the time of Gregory the 
Great, as rubricists state, it has been customary with the Popes to wear 
the cross on their sandals, that the honor might be referred to Christ cru- 
cified. If, however, it be given directly to the Pope, as His earthly repre- 
sentative, there is nothing in it which reason may condemn. Besides, the 
Pope himself every year, on Holy Thursday, kisses the feet of thirteen 
priests, after having washed them in imitation of our Blessed Redeemer. 
Can his admission of others to perform in his regard a similar act, be a 
just cause of scandal ? 

The splendid chair on which the Pope is borne aloft on the shoulders 
of twelve men, to the basilic of St. Peter, is used in consideration of his 
age, which is generally advanced, and in order to render him visible to 
the faithful, who should, on this solemn occasion, distinctly recognise 
their chief Pastor. The peacock feathers, which wave on each side of it, 
are symbolical of his universal inspection, as if he had as many eyes as 
appear in the plumage of the proud bird. 

I deem it superfluous to explain in detail the ceremonies practised in 
the basilic of St. Peter, where, after adoring the Blessed Sacrament, the 
Pope receives the same homage as had been given him in the chapel. 
Three cardinal priests are admitted to kiss his mouth and breast on this 
occasion : in token of the affection which they bear him, and of the 
reverence with which they will receive the words which he shall utter in 
the name of Christ. 



* Isa. lii. 7. 



250 CEREMONIES. 



1 2.— CEREMONIES OF CORONATION. 

The solemn coronation takes place generally a week after the election. 
In this ceremony, a long plated cane, surmounted with a bunch of flax, is 
carried by the master of ceremonies, who lights it, bends the knee, as is 
usually done toward sovereigns, and says : " Holy Father, thus passeth 
away the glory of this world/' This ceremony is repeated three times, 
that the Pontiff may never suffer his mind to be dazzled by the splendor 
with which he is surrounded. 

On the altar where Mass is to be celebrated, seven candlesticks are 
lighted, as is usual whenever any bishop celebrates in his own diocese, in 
conformity with the vision of the Evangelist, to whom our Lord appeared 
amid seven candlesticks, symbols of the seven churches of Asia Minor. 

After the confession in the commencement of Mass, the Pope is placed 
on the seat on which he was carried to the church ; the pallium is blessed 
by the three first cardinals, and is then hung on his shoulders, by the first 
cardinal deacon, who says to him: "Receive the holy pallium, the fulness 
of the pontifical office, for the honor of Almighty God, and of the most 
glorious Virgin Mary, His Mother, and of the blessed apostles Peter and 
Paul, and of the Holy Roman Church/' The mention of the Blessed 
Virgin and the apostles, in conjunction with the Deity, is conformable to 
scriptural precedent, where the agent of divine power is mentioned 
conjointly with God himself. Thus Moses* and Gideonf are mentioned 
with God. 

The cardinal deacon, accompanied by the judges of the tribunal called 
Rota, and by the consistorial advocates, goes to the tomb of St. Peter, 
and thrice invokes Christ in behalf of the Pontiff : " Hear us graciously, 
Christ," he cries ; and those around him answer, praying : " Long life 
to the Sovereign Pontiff and Universal Pope destined by God." " Sa- 
viour of the world," cries the cardinal deacon; they answering: " do 
Thou help him." The aid of the prayers of the archangels and saints is 
then asked in a short litany. 

The Gospel is sung in Latin and Greek, to represent the union of 
those two great portions of the Church, whose rite and language are 
different. 

After the Mass, the Pontiff, seated in the great balcony in front of the 
church of St. John of Lateran, in the presence of the whole people, is 
crowned with the tiara, by the first cardinal deacon, after the choir has 
sung the verse of the Psalmist : " A golden crown is on his head !" 

It is a curious fact that the tiara, in its original form, is no other than 
the cap used by the ancient Romans as the symbol of liberty, because 



* Num. xxi. 5. 



f Judges vii. 20. 



CEREMONIES. 



251 



given to liberated slaves. In the ancient images of the Popes, all who 
preceded the reign of Constantine are represented with the head un- 
covered; Sylvester, who was contemporary with him, appears with the 
simple Roman cap. Papebroeck conjectures that the reason of this is 
that when peace was granted to the Church by Constantine, Sylvester, 
either of his own accord, or by order of the emperor, took the cap as the 
symbol of liberty, according to Roman usage.* The Bollandists concur 
in this view, and explain its signification as relating to the liberation of 
the Church by Constantine, from heathenish oppression, and the many 
immunities which he granted to her.f Novaes, a Portuguese, writing at 
Rome in the beginning of the present century, adopts the same opinion, 
and expressly says, that the tiara was originally the Roman cap, the sym- 
bol of liberty. J An ornamental circle, which is called by many a crown, 
is observable around the lower part, in the ancient pictures of the Popes 
who succeeded Sylvester ; but there is no evidence of any coronation of 
a Pope before the time of Nicholas I., in the middle of the ninth cen- 
tury, or at least before Leo III., in 795. I, therefore, incline to believe, 
that this ornament was first added when the Popes had acquired a tem- 
poral principality, and was used as a secular ornament, symbolical of 
their sovereignty over the Roman States. The circumstance of the tiara 
being blessed and placed on the Pope in the balcony of the church, and 
the fact of its never being worn at Mass, favor this view. Innocent 
III. speaks of it as the symbol of temporal power : but his words 
Seem to regard the power which, as Vicar of Christ, he claimed over 
sovereigns, ratione peccati, as far as the morality of their actions was 
concerned. "The Church," he says, "has given me a crown as a 
symbol of temporalities : she has conferred on me a mitre in token of 
spiritual power : a mitre for the priesthood — a crown for the kingdom : 
making me the vicar of Him who bears written on His garment and 
thigh : ' The King of kings, and Lord of lords/ "§ Some think that 
Boniface VIII., who began his reign in 1294, added a second circle, or 
crown, to the cap, to express more forcibly this same power over sove- 
reigns : but if the testimony of Benzo can be relied on, the two circles 
were on the cap worn by Nicholas II., who was chosen Pope in 1053. || 
Innocent III., however, makes no allusion to the second circle. The 
third circle was added, as many think, by Benedict XII., in 1334, but 
more probably by Urban VI., chosen in 1362. The ancient images of 
the Popes preserved at Rome favor this latter opinion. I know of no 
document which determines the meaning^" of the three circles. They 



* In conatu ad S. Silvest., n. 5. f Acta SS. Maji, 1. iv. die 19. 

% Diss, v., Delia solenne Coron. del Ponf., p. 87. § Serm. in festo S. Silvest. 

|| De Rebus Henrici III., 1. vii. c. 2. 
" Qual che siane il significato simbolico." Lunadoro. 



252 



CEREMONIES 



may have been added for mere ornament, without any special signi- 
fication. 

The tiara was generally worn only in the solemn ceremony of the 
coronation, until the time of Paul II., chosen Pope in 1464, who used 
it on many occasions. Some Popes wore it on the chief festivals. 

The address made to the Pope when the tiara is placed on his head, 
which mentions the three crowns, must have been composed or amended 
since they were adopted. The cardinal deacon says to him : " Receive 
the tiara adorned with three crowns, and know that thou art the father 
of princes and kings, the ruler of the world on earth,* the Vicar of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honor and glory throughout all ages." 
This language might be considered as implying all that was claimed by 
Gregory, Innocent, or Boniface ; but it is also capable of an interpre- 
tation consistent with the more moderate pretensions of the Popes, who, 
since the days of Sixtus V. or Gregory XIV., during two centuries and a 
half, have filled the chair of the fisherman. The Pontiff is truly " the 
father of princes and kings/' venerated as such by all the children of 
the Church, who, in their highest elevation, recognise him as the general 
head of the whole Christian family. He may be styled " ruler on earth 
of the world," because the Church, in which he holds the primacy, is 
spread throughout the world, and he is charged to promulgate to every 
creature the law of God, to which every soul must be subject. He holds 
the place of Christ, being entrusted by Him with the care of His 
sheepfold. 



* " Rectorem orbis in terra." Some put a comma after orbis, and refer " in terra" to 
vicarium : but the other punctuation seems correct. H Orbis in urbe" is found in Ovid, 
and signifies a multitude in a city. 



PART II. 



SEOUL AE RELATION'S. 



I 



CHAPTER I. 



f atrtong xrf SSL f 

The primacy is essentially a spiritual office, which has not, of divine 
right, any temporal appendage : yet the Pope is actually sovereign of a 
small principality in Italy, designated the patrimony of St. Peter, or the 
States of, the Church. It has been so styled because it has been attached 
to the pontifical office, through reverence for the prince of the apostles. 
As it has no necessary connection with the primacy, and as Catholics, 
not living within the Roman States, are not subject to the civil authority 
of the Pope, it is not necessary to treat of it : yet it is a matter of no 
small interest to trace its history, and observe by what a combination of 
events Providence has annexed it to the Holy See, and most wonderfully 
maintained it, amid the revolutions of empires and kingdoms. 

Christ sent forth His disciples without scrip or staff, giving them no 
dominion over the least spot of earth. In making Peter the ruler of 
His kingdom, He did not give him dominion, or wealth, or any of the 
appendages of royalty. The Master had not whereon to lay His head ; 
and the chief disciple was unprovided with any earthly possession. Gold 
and silver he had not, but he had powers of a supernatural order, for the 
government of men in order to salvation. 

The generous zeal with which the first disciples devoted themselves to 
the service of God, led many of them to sell their property, and lay the 
purchase-money at the feet of St. Peter, to form thence a common fund 
for the general necessities : yet we have no reason to suppose that it rose 
to any great amount, since the constantly-flowing streams of beneficence 
left but little in the common reservoir. When the apostle closed his 
career, he bequeathed to his successors no inheritance but the labors and 
dangers of his office. For three centuries they continued exposed to the 
fury of persecution. Nevertheless, the generosity of the faithful con- 
secrated to the service of religion, under their direction, a considerable 
portion of their worldly riches ; so that a public treasure was formed, by 
means of which the clergy and a large number of indigent persons were 
supported. In the middle of the third century, Pope Cornelius, in a 
letter to Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, stated that there were then at Rome 
forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, forty-two acolytes, 

255 



•256 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



fifty-two exorcists, lectors, and janitors ; that is, clergymen in minor 
orders ; and one thousand five hundred widows, with other afflicted and 
distressed persons, — to all of whom the grace and bounty of the Lord 
furnished support.* The heathens believed the wealth of the Church to 
be great, since the deacon Lawrence, in time of persecution, was called 
on to deliver it up to the public officer. To avoid doing so, he distributed 
all to the poor, whom he presented at the appointed time, saying : " Here 
are the treasures of the Church V 

It is certain that the Emperor Constantine bestowed large possessions 
on the Bishop of Rome. Although the document which purports to be 
the instrument of donation is supposititious, yet, as the acute De Maistre 
observes, nothing is more certain than the donation of Constantine. Vol- 
taire avows, that "he gave in reality to the cathedral church of St. 
John, not to the Bishop of Borne individually, a thousand marks of 
gold, and. thirty thousand marks of silver, with a revenue of fourteen 
thousand pence, and lands in Calabria. Each emperor successively in- 
creased this patrimony. The Bishops of Rome stood in need of it. The 
missionaries whom they soon sent to pagan Europe, the exiled bishops to 
whom they afforded a refuge, the poor whom they fed, put them under 
the necessity of being very wealthy. "f The palace of Lateran was in 
possession of the Pope in the early part of the fourth century, since 3Iel- 
chiades held there a Council to decide the Donatist controversy, and the 
church erected beside it still bears the name of the generous emperor. 
Fleury testifies, that from the ancient monuments of the Roman Church 
it is apparent that Constantine gave to the baptistery of St. John of La- 
teran, which is attached to the Constantine basilic, so many houses and 
farms, not only in Italy, but likewise in Sicily, Africa, and Greece, that 
the annual revenue amounted to 30,394 marks of gold. J Secular in- 
fluence naturally followed wealth, and the withdrawal of Constantine 
from the ancient capital of the empire, left the Bishop of Rome in a 
position almost independent; the pontifical chair being no longer over- 
shadowed by the imperial throne. "When Pope Leo the Great was in- 
vited to a general Council by the Emperor Marcian, he pleaded, besides 
the want of precedent on the part of his predecessors, the danger to the 
public peace should he absent himself from the city. "The very uncer- 
tain state of affairs at present does not allow me to withdraw from the 
population of this city, since the minds which are agitated would be cast 
into despair, were I to quit the country and the Apostolic See for a cause 
of an ecclesiastical nature." § This shows that his presence was con- 
nected in the public mind with the peace and safety of the city : on 
which, account he writes to the emperor : " temporal necessity does not 



* Ad Eabium Antioch, col. 150, Coustant, t. i. 
% Hist,, 1. xi., A. C. 326. 



f Essai sur l'Histoire, t. ii. 

§ Ep. xxviii. ad Pulcheriam Aug. 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



257 



allow me to leave the city."* Necessity forced him to act as protector 
and father of the Roman people, when his interposition alone could avert 
the wrath of some fierce barbarian rushing forward to lay the fair city in 
ruins, and fill her streets with her slaughtered citizens. When Attila, 
" the scourge of God," at the head of five hundred thousand Huns, 
advanced to its destruction, the mild eloquence of Leo disarmed him. 
Two years afterward, the Pontiff discharged the same office of mediator 
with Genseric, who, at the head of Yandals and Moors, came to wreak 
vengeance on the queen of nations ; but he could only save the lives of 
the citizens by delivering the city to pillage. Even in times of tran- 
quillity, Leo exercised some acts of civil authority, since he summoned 
the Manichees to trial, and, on conviction, banished them from the city.f 
Although the Bishop of Rome was not as yet a temporal sovereign, yet 
his spiritual power was surrounded with so great secular influence, that 
he almost ranked as a prince, and felt that wrongs inflicted on his repre- 
sentatives in the imperial court were violations of the rights of so- 
vereignty. In 484, St. Felix complained to the Emperor Zeno, that the 
laws of nations had been violated by the injurious treatment of his 
legates. 

The moderation and indulgence with which the Popes treated their 
dependents, made men desirous to enjoy their protection. St. Gregory 
the Great exhorted Sabinian, Bishop of Callipolis,J a city dependent on 
the Roman Church, to see that the citizens should not be overmuch bur- 
dened^ Pantaleon, the notary of Syracuse, having reported to him that 
injustice had been practised in the name of the Roman Church on her 
dependents, he praised him, and directed strict inquiry to be made into 
the wrongs already committed, that they might be repaired : " for," he 
says, " like the Teacher of the nations, I have all things, and abound : 
and I do not seek money, but a heavenly recompense." || He instructed 
Peter, his agent in Sicily, to cause restitution to be made, if, as was 
alleged, the possessions of individuals, or their personal property, or their 
slaves, had been seized in the name of the Roman Church, within the 
preceding ten years, and to save the aggrieved the trouble of coming to 
Rome for redress. Strict impartiality was enjoined by him, as the best 
evidence which the agent could give of his devotedness to the Apostolic 
See : " for then," says he, " you will be truly a soldier of St. Peter, if in 
cases which concern him, you maintain what is right, without regard to 
his interests. "If Guizot, after citing some humane regulations of Gre- 
gory, observes : " It is easy to understand why people were at that time 
eager to place themselves under the dominion of the Church : lay pro- 



* Ep. xxxiv. ad Theodosium Aug. 
J A seaport in Otranto, Naples. 
|| L. xiii. ep. xxxiv. 



17 



f Ep. ii. ad ep. per Italiam. 
§ L. ix. ep. c. 
f L. i. ep. xxxvi. 



/ 

258 PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



prietors were certainly far from showing like solicitude for the well-being 
of the occupants of their domains."* 

The possessions of the Roman Churchf were regarded as a trust for 
the poor, whose interests St. Gregory felt that he was guarding, while he 
attended to the collection of the revenues, which he dispensed with 
liberality and discernment. He directed two thousand bushels of wheat 
to be given by the deacon Cyprian, his agent in Sicily, to the Bishop 
Zeno, for the relief of the poor of his city.| Sending the priest Can- 
didus into Gaul, to manage the small patrimony of the Roman Church 
in that kingdom, he ordered the revenues to be employed in buying 
clothes for the poor, and in purchasing English boys of seventeen or 
eighteen years of age, that they might be rescued from the bondage of 
error and sin, and instructed in some monastery, where they might serve 
God.§ He thanked the prefect of Africa for the protection afforded by 
him in what regarded the interests of the poor of blessed Peter, prince 
of the apostles. 1 1 Talitan, another guardian of the patrimony, was 
exhorted by him to defend it, as being the portion of the poor. Truly 
did Gibbon say : " In the use of wealth he acted like a faithful steward 
of the Church and the poor, and liberally applied to their wants the 
inexhaustible resources of abstinence and order."^[ 

Property, in those ages, brought with it dominion over the occupants 
of the soil: whence "the agents of the Church of Rome had acquired a 
civil and even criminal jurisdiction over their tenants and husband- 
men."** Although the feudal system was not as yet developed, yet 
much that characterized the ages strictly designated feudal, was ob- 
servable in the relations of landlord and tenant j so that the remarks of 
Guizot, applied to that period, may help to solve the enigma of the 
exercise of a power apparently supreme in many respects, and yet con- 
fessedly subordinate to the imperial authority. " The landed proprietor, 
as such, exercised in his possessions some of the rights now reserved to 
the sovereign. He maintained order, administered justice, or caused it to 
be administered ; led forth, or sent forth to battle the occupants of 
his lands, not in virtue of a special power styled political, but of his 
right of property, which included various powers. "tf In fact, we 
find Gregory issuing orders to the defender — that is, agent or officer 
charged with the care of the patrimony — in an authoritative form :JJ 



* Cours d'Histoire Moderne, t. iv. p. 259. 

f These are called "justitice S. Petri," in various documents of the eighth century. 
The term was probably used for "jura," rights, and borrowed from the Vulgate, which 
uses it with great latitude. See Discorso Storico sopra alcuni punti della Storia Longo- 
bardica per llansoni, $ iv. 

J L. vi. ep. iv. $ L. v. ep. vii. 

|| L. x., ep. xxxvii. f Decline and Fall, &e. ch. xlv. 

** Decline and Fall, &o. ch. xlv. f f Cours d' Histoire Moderne, t. iii. p. 75. 

XX Prcecepti nostri pagina. L. ix., ep. xl., et. 1. x., ep. X. 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



259 



and confirming his acts in the most express manner, to prevent their being 
called in question.* He directed his attention to the case of an injured 
woman, whose complaints had reached him, and ordered an inquiry to be 
made into it, by arbitrators to be chosen by the parties. f He prescribed 
rules to be followed in trials of the right of property, and directed posses- 
sion during forty years to be taken as a presumptive proof, barring any 
adverse claim. J He instructed Sergius, the defender at Otranto, to force 
Fruniscendus to answer a claim made against him, and to pronounce and 
execute the sentence, without admitting any appeal. § 

It may be questioned whether Gregory acted as a landed proprietor, in 
several instances, in which he took upon himself to direct military move- 
ments for the defence of various parts of Italy. Doubtless he had vast 
interests at stake ; but zeal for the common safety may have prompted 
him to give orders, which all were disposed to receive with gratitude and 
reverence from one whose social position was already so eminent. We 
find him appointing Constance, the tribune, to guard the city of Naples, 
and exhorting the soldiers to obey him.|| Maurentius, another officer in 
command of the troops at Naples, was directed to relieve Theodosius, 
abbot of a monastery in Campania, from the necessity of guarding the 
walls. Apprehending that Ariulph, the Lombard, might attack 
Kavenna or Rome, he issued orders for defence to the commanders of 
the troops.** He apprised Januarius, Bishop of Cagliari, and Genadius, 
who appears to have been a layman in high office, of the danger of the 
invasion of Sardinia by the Lombards under Agilulph, that they might 
prepare to repel it, declaring that on his part he would neglect nothing in 
his power in order to be in readiness. 

The negotiations which Gregory carried on with the Lombard king, 
show that his own position was equivalent to that of an independent 
prince. He urged Severus, the assessor of the exarch, to advise him to 
make peace with Agilulph, intimating that should he decline any arrange- 
ment, the king had offered to come to an arrangement with himself: 
this shows that he was in a position nearly equal to that of a sovereign. ]"}" 
He afterward made peace with the Lombards, on terms nowise prejudicial 
to the commonwealth. He wrote to Agilulph, to thank him for the 
peace, urged him to see that his officers observe it, and assured him that 
he received his messengers affectionately, as bearers of good tidings. §§ 
At the same time he addressed letters of thanks to Theodelinda, the wife 
of the king, for her kind offices in procuring peace, and begged her to con- 



* Per hujus tuitionis iiaginam confirrnamus. 

•f" Ep. lxxxiii. 

§ L. ix., ep. ci. 

^[ L. ix., ep. Ixxiii. 

ff L. v., ep. xxxr. 

U Ep. xlii. 



L. ix., ep. lvii. 

X L. i., ep. ii., et. 1. vii., ep. xxxix. 
I L. ii., ep. xxxi. 

L. iii., ep. xxix. xxx. 

tt e p- *i: 



2G0 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



tinue them, that Agilulph "may not reject the society of the Christian 
republic."* " Disappointed/' says Gibbon, "in the hopes of a general 
and lasting treaty, he presumed to save his country without the consent 
of the emperor or the exarch. The sword of the enemy was suspended 
over Rome : it was averted by the mild eloquence and seasonable gifts 
of the Pontiff, who commanded the respect of heretics and barbarians. 
The merits of Gregory were treated by the Byzantine court with reproach 
and insult; but in the attachment of a grateful people, he found the 
purest reward of a citizen, and the best right of a sovereign. "f 

That he had civil authority at Rome, appears from the plea of Boniface 
of Africa, who offered as an excuse for not presenting himself to give an 
account of his faith, that his friends feared the employment of force 
against him : " Those," says the Pontiff, " who partake of your doubts, 
if they will come to me, have no reason to fear that I will employ my 
authority against them ; for in all causes, but especially in those which 
regard divine things, we are eager to bind men by reason, rather than by 
force. "| His great civil influence is apparent from his observation, when 
he was calumniated as having caused the death of the Bishop Malchus : 
" On this point it suffices for you to remark to our most serene lords, that 
if I, their servant, had been willing to cause the death of the Lombards, 
the Lombard nation would, at this day, have neither king, nor dukes, nor 
counts, but would be in unutterable confusion. "§ He was not, however, 
free from all dependence on the empire, since we find him promulgating a 
law enacted by Mauritius, although it did not accord with his own judg- 
ment. The terms of his remonstrance indicate the submission of a 
subject to his sovereign. || 

At a subsequent period, the fanatic zeal of Justinian to procure the 
approval of the Trullan Council, and the persecuting measures of the 
Iconoclasts, caused the Romans and Italians to rally round the Bishop of 
Rome. "When Zacharias, an imperial officer, attempted to execute the 
order which he had received for the arrest and transportation to Constan- 
tinople of Pope Sergius, who refused to sanction the innovations of the 
Trullan prelates, the military of Ravenna, of the dukedom of Pentapolis, 
and of the neighboring districts, rushed to the defence of the Pontiff, and, 
but for his interposition, would have torn the officer to pieces. The 
Lombards vied with the Romans in protecting the person of Gregory II. 
against the satellites of the Iconoclast emperor, Leo the Isaurian. From 
that time, the military took a conspicuous part in the election of the 
Pope, being allowed, on more than one occasion, to declare their assent 
by subscribing the document which certified that he was chosen by the 



* Ep. xliii. 
% L. iv., ep. xliii. 

]] "Ego quidem jussioni subjectus- 



f Decline and Fall, &c. ch. xlv. 
£ Ep. xlvii. 

! — imperatori obedientiam prcebui." L. iii. ep. Ixv. 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



261 



clergy, soldiery, and people. Notwithstanding this attempt on his own 
life, Gregory continued to support the imperial authority, forbidding the 
Italians to revolt, as they had determined, when Leo the Isaurian decreed 
the destruction of the sacred images. Prompted by humanity and 
religion, several Popes adopted measures for the protection of the Romans 
against the barbarian hordes that overran Italy ; and with this view raised 
walls around the city, and provided it with means of defence. Through 
the neglect of the Eastern emperors to succor and protect their Italian 
subjects, the imperial power soon became extinct, and the Popes, unable 
to cope with the Lombards, were compelled to seek aid from the Franks. 
" Any effectual assistance," as Hallam avows, " from the Emperor Con- 
stantine Copronymus, would have kept Rome still faithful."* When 
Rome was besieged by Aristulph, Stephen III. called on Pepin to succor 
the Roman Church, and "his people, the citizens of the republic of the 
Romans." On his victory over the Lombards, in 755, Pepin restored 
to the Pope twenty cities, which his valor had recovered. This can 
scarcely be considered a mere donation, since a great portion, if not all, 
of the territory had already belonged to the Pope : whence Stephen IV., 
in the year 769, urged the French princes, Charles and Carloman, as a 
matter of duty which they owed to St. Peter, to see that his property 
usurped by the Lombards should be fully restored. " If you neglect or 
delay to enforce his just claims, a thing which we cannot believe, know 
that you shall render a strict account of them to the prince of the 
apostles himself, before the tribunal of Christ. "f Language so strong 
cannot be applicable to a mere gift of their father. "The Popes," 
says Hallam, "appear to have possessed some measure of temporal 
power, even while the city was professedly governed by the exarchs of 
Ravenna, in the name of the Eastern empire. This power became more 
extensive on her separation from Constantinople. "J It is not easy to 
define with accuracy the relations of the Romans to the king and the 
Pontiff ) but the latter may be regarded as limiting his sovereignty to the 
exercise of a protectorate, while the Romans were virtually a republic ; 
and " the Patrician," as Pepin was styled, was to support the existing 
order, by his intervention in cases of extraordinary danger from external 
assaults or domestic dissensions. By his counsels and influence, rather 
than by the display of power, the Pontiff reigned over his people, who 
cheerfully obeyed their father and benefactor, unless when excited passion 
drove them to temporary acts of insubordination and revolt. As it did 
not become him to use the sword, he called to his aid a temporal prince, 
to employ that coercion which was necessary to restrain rebellious spirits, 
reserving to himself the exercise of the milder attributes of sovereignty. § 



* Middle Ages, ch. i. f Ep. xlvi. Cod. Carol. % Middle Ages, p. 1, ch. iii. 

# Something like this is seen in the actual relations to the Papal government of the 
French and Austrian troops now occupying the States of the Church. 



262 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



When some desperate men, in attempting to assassinate the holy Pontiff 
Leo III., mutilated and disfigured him, he became intercessor in their 
behalf with Charlemagne, as yet only patrician, and obtained their par- 
don. Yet, on a subsequent occasion, when a similar attempt had been 
made, and the assassins had been found guilty of a crime punishable 
with death, according to the laws of the Eonians, he suffered the sentence 
to be executed, lest extreme lenity should embolden the wicked. 

" Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so ; 
Pardon is still the nurse of second wo."* 

Among the acts of sovereignty which the public danger forced the 
Pontiffs to exercise, was the repelling of barbarian troops that invaded 
the Roman territory. In the reign of Leo IV., the Saracens endeavored 
to effect a landing at Ostia, in order to advance against Eonie. The 
heroic Pope fulfilled the duties of a sovereign, without prejudice to his 
spiritual character, as Voltaire acknowledges: "Pope Leo IV., taking 
upon himself at this crisis an authority which the generals of the Em- 
peror Lothaire seemed to abandon, showed himself worthy to be the 
sovereign of Eome, by his successful defence of it. He had employed 
the riches of the Church in repairing the walls, raising towers, and 
extending chains over the Tiber. He armed the troops at his own 
expense, engaged the inhabitants of Naples and Gaeta to come to the de- 
fence of the coasts and port of Ostia, without neglecting the wise precau- 
tion of requiring hostages from them, as he well knew that those who are 
strong enough to aid us, are equally so to do us injury. He himself 
visited all the posts, and met the Saracens on their approach, not clad in 
military attire, as Goslin, the Bishop of Paris, had appeared in a still 
more critical conjuncture, but as a Pontiff exhorting a Christian people, 
and a sovereign intent on the safety of his subjects. He was a native of 
Eome. The courage of the first ages of the republic revived in his per- 
son, at a period of degeneracy and corruption, like some splendid monu- 
ment of ancient Eome, now and then discovered among the ruins of the 
modern city. The attack of the Saracens was bravely met, and half of 
their vessels having been destroyed by a storm, a portion of the assailants, 
who escaped shipwreck, were chained, to be employed in public works : 
the Pope deriving this advantage from his victory, that the very hands 
which were raised for the destruction of Eome were employed in fortify- 
ing and adorning it/'f 

Similar occasions for the exercise of a protective sovereignty occurred 
from time to time. In the early part of the tenth century, John X. suc- 
cessfully repulsed the Saracens, who had attempted to invade the Eoman 



* Measure for Measure. — Shakspeare. 

f Voltaire, Puissance des Mussulmans, ch. xxiv. 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



263 



territory. Benedict VIII., in the following age, drove them from the 
Italian shores, and compelled the Greeks, who inhabited Apulia, to sue 
for peace. St. Leo IX. accompanied his troops in their expedition against 
the Normans, who ravaged the south of Italy, to inspire confidence by 
his presence; but he took no part in the strife, being content, like 
another Moses, to uplift his hands in prayer. God, whose counsels are 
mysterious, suffered the barbarians to prevail, and His servant to become 
their captive : but such was the influence of his sacred character on their 
minds, that instead of insulting him in misfortune, they knelt to do him 
homage. 

The occasional exercise of supreme power over the Komans by the em- 
perors, has led Guizot to observe, that " the sovereignty was not fully 
ascribed either to the Pope or to the emperor; uncertain and undivided, 
it floated between them."* It appears, by numberless facts, that the 
Pope was sovereign, while an efficient protectorate was acknowledged in 
the emperor, who came, at his solicitation, to support him, and, in that 
conjuncture, with his assent, exercised some acts of a temporary so- 
vereignty. " We acknowledge," said Alexander III., " the lord emperor, 
in virtue of his dignity, advocate and special defender of the Holy 
Roman Church. The prefect of the city took the oath of allegiance 
to him up to the time of Innocent III., who required the senator and 
barons of the Roman States to pledge their fealty to himself, and nomi- 
nated the subordinate magistrates. In the oath taken to the emperor 
Arnulph, a clause saving their fidelity to Pope Formosus was contained. 
The municipal government of Rome seems to have been always in the 
hands of popular officers, after the manner of a republic, so that even the 
power of the Pope was seldom felt in the details of civil administration. 
He interfered chiefly when the public danger required that the vessel of 
the State should be guided by a superior mind and firm hand ; and he 
called for the support of the emperor, when physical force was necessary 
to subdue the rebellion of his own subjects. " The spirits, and even the 
institutions of the Romans," as Hallam remarks, "were republican. 
Amid the darkness of the tenth century, which no contemporary his- 
torian dissipates, we faintly distinguish the awful names of senate, con- 
suls, and tribunes, the domestic magistracy of Rome. "J The origin of 
the pontifical sovereignty is traced by Gibbon to the necessity which the 
Romans felt of superior direction and support, to which we must add the 
voluntary submission of various cities, anxious to share the blessings of a 
mild protectorate. " By the necessity of their situation, the inhabitants 
of Rome were cast into the rough model of a republican government : 



* Cours d'Histoire Moderne, t. iii. p. 76. 

f Apud Baron., an. 1159, p. 439. 

J Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. iii. par. i. p. 234. 



264 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



they were compelled to elect some judges in peace, and some leaders in 
war : the nobles assembled to deliberate, and their resolves could not be 
executed without the union and consent of the multitude. The want of 
laws could only be supplied by the influence of religion, and their foreign 
and domestic councils were moderated by the authority of the Bishop. 
His alms, his sermons, his correspondence with the kings and prelates of 
the West, his recent services, their gratitude and oath, accustomed the 
Romans to consider him as the first magistrate, or prince, of the city. 
The Christian humility of the Popes/' he adds, in a tone of irony, " was 
not offended by the name of Dominus, or Lord: and their face and in- 
scription are still apparent on the most ancient coins. Their temporal 
domiDion is now confirmed by the reverence of a thousand years, and 
their noblest title is the free choice of a people whom they had redeemed 
from slavery."* 

Rome long preserved her republican character. Saint-Priest says : 
u Rome, from the age of Constantine, under the title of republic, which 
she never lost, had become a kind of free city, which, for illustration 
sake, I shall compare to the Hanseatic cities of the north of G-ermany.''t 
The Pope might well be styled the father and protector of the Roman 
republic. The desolation of the city, sometimes by famine, and often by 
hostile armies, imposed on him the necessity of succoring it; and his 
treasury, containing the revenues arising from the possessions of the 
Roman Church in other places, was exhausted to furnish provisions to the 
famishing people, and to protect the remains of the imperial city from 
the incursions of hostile armies. "With paternal solicitude, the third and 
fourth Leo directed their efforts to secure the church of St. Peter by a 
wall, enclosing the Vatican mount, or, what was styled from their name, 
the city of Leo: civitas Leonina. At the entreaty of the nobles, who 
complained of the Saracen depredations, Leo TV. determined to execute 
what his predecessor had designed, and accordingly summoned the 
citizens to council, arranged his plans, ordering the cities dependant on 
the republic, and the monasteries themselves, to furnish mechanics, and 
for four years he spared no personal labor or exposure, until the work was 
completed. There are traces of republican deliberation in this narrative, 
and every thing warrants us in regarding the Pontiff as the father, rather 
than lord of his people. 

Of the temporal monarchy of Rome, Hallam observes : " Her ultimate 
sovereignty was compatible with the practical independence of the free 
cities, or of the usurpers who had risen up among them. Bologna, 
Faenza, Rimini, and Ravenna, with many other less considerable, took 
an oath, indeed, to the Pope, but continued to regulate both their internal 



* Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ch. xlis.. A.D. 72 S, 
f Histoire de la Royaute, L iii. p. 2S4. 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



265 



concerns and foreign relations at their own discretion. The first of these 
cities was far pre-eminent above the rest for population and renown, and, 
though not without several interruptions, preserved a republican character 
till the end of the fourteenth century."* The Roman magistrates often 
went beyond the limits of a municipal power, and reduced the Papal 
sovereignty to a protectorate void of all efficiency. They frequently 
assumed to themselves supreme power, as Hallam again testifies : " In 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Senate, and the senator who 
succeeded them, exercised one distinguishing attribute of sovereignty, 
that of coining gold and silver money. Some of their coins still exist, 
with legends in a very republican tone."f For a considerable time the 
Romans freely chose their Senator, by which name they designated a ma- 
gistrate who exercised supreme control during the period of his govern- 
ment j and they even gave this title to Martin IV., as a personal privilege, 
expressly stipulating that it should not be considered as inherent in the 
pontifical office. 

Under the influence of the seditious declamations of Arnold of Bres- 
cia, the Romans, during a considerable part of the twelfth century, were 
in revolt. Several Popes were forced to flee from their capital, aDd erect 
their chair in Perugia, Viterbo, or some other city of Italy, or to take 
refuge in France, which gained the glorious title of the asylum of Popes. 
Sometimes the emperor came to their relief, and replaced them in safety 
on their throne. On other occasions, Heaven itself seemed to take their 
cause in hand, and by pestilence brought the disobedient Romans to a 
sense of duty. In 1230, after a calamitous visitation of this kind, 
caused by the inundation of the Tiber, they sent an embassy to Gregory 
IX., who for two years had been an exile in Perugia, beseeching him to 
return and bless his penitent children. The venerable Pontiff, on his 
return, lavished gifts on them, and " built a noble palace for the use of 
the poor/' as his biographer assures us. 

The character of the pontifical government has been at all times 
paternal and protective ; whence, although popular discontent has often 
manifested itself, especially through the intrigues of schismatical em- 
perors, many of the surrounding cities sought to enjoy its advantages. 
In the eighth century, as we learn from Anastasius, " some of those of 
Spoleto and Rieti came to Rome, entreating to be shaved ' alia mam'era 
de' Bomani,' in token of their subjection to the Pope, rather than to the 
Lombards," and after the defeat of the Lombard king, Desiderius, the 
entire dukedom eagerly sought the same privilege. The paternal 
character of the pontifical government is stated in a letter from the 
Senate and the Roman people to King Pepin, in the year 763, in the 
pontificate of Paul I. " They protest that they are firm and faithful 



* Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. iii. p. 11. 



f Ibidem. 



266 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



servants of the holy Church of God, and of our most blessed father and 
lord, Pope Paul, because he is our father and excellent pastor, and labors 
incessantly for our salvation, as his brother Pope Stephen likewise did, 
governing us as reasonable sheep committed to him by God, and exhibit- 
ing clemency always, and imitating St. Peter, whose Vicar he is."* On 
the elevation of Innocent III., Conrad, Duke of Spoleto and Assisi, 
seeing the eagerness of his subjects to enjoy pontifical protection, freed 
them from their oath of allegiance, and surrendered various fortresses 
into the hands of the Pontiff. Rieti, Spoleto, Assisi, Foligno, and Nu- 
ceria, with their whole districts, thus came into his power. Perugia, like- 
wise, Eugubium, Todi, and the city of Acquapendente, Montefiascone, 
and all Tuscany, acknowledged his authority. 

The pontifical principality was greatly embarrassed by the high preten- 
sions of the princes or barons within the States of the Church, until the 
reign of Alexander VI., when they were crushed by the strong arm of 
Cesar Borgia. f From that time, the papal sovereignty was more ex- 
tensively felt in the confederacies of princes : but for a long period the 
Pontiffs have maintained a complete neutrality. 

Although the splendor of a throne may seem to correspond but ill with 
the lowly beginnings of the Eoman Church, when the Syrian fisherman, 
preaching the folly of the cross, came unnoticed or despised into the city 
of the Cesars, we cannot doubt that Divine Providence has clothed his 
successor with this adventitious power, that he might exercise more inde- 
pendently the attributes of his spiritual office. His civil dominion is 
large enough to inspire respect, while it is not of such extent as to render 
him formidable. It enables him to foster many ecclesiastical institutions 
of vast advantage to the Universal Church, as well as to be a munificent 
patron of learning, art, and science. "Were he the subject of a temporal 
prince, the exercise of his authority would be always liable to the sus- 
picion of constraint, or undue influence, and he might become, like the 
Bishop of Constantinople, " a domestic slave under the eye of his master, 
at whose nod he alternately passed from the convent to the throne, and 



* This letter is the "thirty-sixth of the Caroline letters." I quote from "Rome as it 
was under Paganism, and as it became under the Popes," <fcc. Vol. ii. p. 317. 

f Roscoe observes: "Alexander might surely think himself justified in suppressing 
the turbulent barons, who had for ages rent the dominions of the Church with intestine 
wars, and in subjugating the petty sovereigns of Romagna, over whom he had an ac- 
knowledged supremacy, and who had in general acquired their dominions by means as 
unjustifiable as those which he adopted against them." — Life of Leo X., vol. i. ch. vi. 
He adds in a note : " Oliverotto da Fermo had obtained the chief authority in the city 
from which he derived his name, by the treacherous murder of his uncle, and several of 
the principal inhabitants, whom he had invited to an entertainment. This atrocious 
deed was perpetrated on the same day, in the preceding year, on which he afterward fell 
into the snare of Cesar Borgia. The other persons put to death by Borgia, had also sup- 
ported themselves by rapine, and were the terror of all Italy." 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



267 



from the throne to the convent."* The great Bossuet has well observed: 
" God wished this Church, which is the common mother of all kingdoms, 
not to be dependent on any kingdom in temporalities, that the See, in 
which all the faithful should preserve unity, might be above the par- 
tialities which the different interests and jealousies of States might 
occasion. The Church, independent in her head of all temporal power, 
is thereby able to exercise more freely, for the common benefit, and 
under the protection of Christian kings, this heavenly power of govern- 
ing souls ; and holding in her hands the balance, in the midst of so many 
empires often at enmity, she maintains unity in all bodies, sometimes by 
inflexible decrees, and sometimes by wise temperaments. ;; f 

In our own Government, we have a striking illustration of the 
principle on which the patrimony of St. Peter is exempted from any 
local sovereignty but that of the Pontiff. In order to preserve the inde- 
pendence and free action of the General Government, it was deemed 
proper by the sages who planned our constitution, that a small district, 
of not more than ten miles 1 circumference, should be free from any State 
or local authority, and immediately dependent on Congress, with a mu- 
nicipal administration. To prevent all intrigue and partisan effort, by 
which the Government might be put in jeopardy, the citizens of the dis- 
trict are denied the right of suffrage in the election of the chief officers 
of the United States. Thus the District of Columbia is, in regard to the 
States, what Kome and the patrimony of St. Peter are in reference to the 
Church. The independence and purity of the General Government 
being thus provided for, its moral influence extends everywhere, while its 
physical power is so restricted as to prevent any just apprehension of any 
exercise of authority to the prejudice of State sovereignty. J 

It must be acknowledged that there are inconveniences connected with 
the union of temporal sovereignty and spiritual supremacy in the one 
person j yet it should be remembered that the powers are altogether dis- 
tinct, since the former regards only the inhabitants of the Roman States, 
while the latter reaches to the ends of the earth. The Pope is not as the 
Roman emperor, who in quality of sovereign Pontiff exercised religious 
supremacy, controlled by no law but his will, and coextensive with im- 
perial sway. The civil administration is carried on by tribunals and 
officers distinct from those that are charged with the general affairs of the 
Church, so that there is no confusion of powers. The mild government 
of the Popes, and the light taxation to which the Romans were formerly 



* Decline and Fall, &o. ch. xlix., A. D. 726. 

f Diseours sur l'Unite de l'Eglise, vol. xv. Op. Bossuet. See also the Bull of excom- 
munication : Quum memoranda, published by Pius VII. on 10 June, 1809. 

X This analogy is ably developed in an essay entitled : " The Papal States analogous 
to the District of Columbia," by A. P. Thompson. Galveston, 1849. 



268 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



subjected, provoked the envy of strangers, who regarded them as the 
happiest people in the world, but for the sanguinary collisions of the 
nobles,* which have long since ceased. In truth, the lenity of the 
administration is its chief defect ; but it still merits the tribute paid to it 
by the infidel historian : " If we calmly weigh the merits and defects of 
the ecclesiastical government, it may be praised in its present state as a 
mild, decent, and tranquil system, exempt from the dangers of a mi- 
nority, the sallies of youth, the expenses of luxury, and the calamities 
of war."")" 

Under the present illustrious occupant of the pontifical throne, the 
paternal character of the government appears with increased lustre. 
With generous solicitude for the happiness of his subjects, he anticipated 
their desires, by adopting, of his own accord, measures for the ameliora- 
tion of their condition. The base ingratitude with which his clemency, 
which threw open the prison-gates, was repaid, and the revolution effected 
by his seditious subjects, spurred on and supported by the active enemies 
of Christianity and society, gathered together from various countries, are 
melancholy facts, which make us blush for our race : but the speedy over- 
throw of the mock republic, infamous for pillage and assassination, by the 
arms of republican France, and the triumphant return of the exiled Pontiff 
to his people and throne, are among the many extraordinary instances of 
Divine interposition.! However, " the better principality" which the Ro- 
man Church possessed in the days of Irenjeus, is altogether independent 
of earthly sovereignty \ it will survive every change of governors, and 
modes of government, and will shine forth from a dungeon as well as 
from a throne. 2vo vicissitudes of the Roman States can affect that 
spiritual authority, which, going forth from the See of the fisherman, is 
felt even in the midst of its enemies. The death of Pius VI. in exile, 
and the captivity of his successor, left little human hope that the States 
of the Church would be restored, or that the See itself would continue : 
but Grod, who casts the mighty from their seats, replaced the persecuted 
Pius VII. on the throne of Peter, amid the boundless acclamations of a 
devoted people, while his oppressor was left to perish on a desert 
island. 

It is a stale calumny that Catholics are vassals, or subjects of the 
Pope : although we everywhere profess, with his full knowledge and 
entire approbation, unqualified allegiance to the respective civil govern- 
ments under which we live. The fathers of the fifth Council of Balti- 
more took occasion to state this distinctly in their address to the late 



* Decline and Fall, ch. lxx., A. D. 1459. f lb., A. D. 1500. 

\ The Into Samuel Farmar Jarvis must be added to the list of mistaken interpreters 
of prophecy, since he ventured to mark the year 1S47, in which he wrote his tardy reply 
to Dr. Milners End of Religious Controversy, as the period of the overthrow of the 
Papacy. 



PATRIMONY OF ST. PETER. 



269 



venerable Pontiff, which was most graciously received.* At the request 
of the sixth Council, his present Holiness has simplified the oath taken 
by bishops at their consecration, omitting the terms and phrases which 
savor 'of feudal times, although they do not anywhere receive a feudal 
interpretation. Thus all pretext for questioning our allegiance is re- 
moved, although our adversaries still object to us the acts of former 
Popes, who interfered in the civil concerns of Christian nations, and in 
the controversies of princes. It will not be uninteresting to review, 
historically, those facts, in order to reconcile our present professions with 
past events. 



* See Acts of V. Council of Baltimore, 



CHAPTER II. 



pt|Mtj ate |rina^ 

§ 1, — IN MATTERS OF FAITH AND MORALS. 

The Roman States form but a small principality, which gives little 
importance to its ruler, and the Rishop of Rome, of divine right, has no 
political or civil power; yet, in the things of salvation, he is above all 
the members of the Church, whatever be their rank — the monarch of 
vast dominions, as well as the lowliest slave. All men are naturally 
equal, and all the members of the Church are children of God, subject 
to His authority, which on earth is exercised especially by the Chief 
Bishop. The divine sovereignty requires that every soul be subject to 
God, rendering homage to His truth, and obedience to His command- 
ments. The acts of the Pontiff, in the lawful discharge of his ecclesi- 
astical supremacy, are to be respected by all who acknowledge him to be, 
under Christ, the ruler of the Church. Hence, when Pope Felix, in 
484, had deprived of communion Acacius, the Bishop of Constantinople, 
he made known the fact to the Emperor Zeno, urging him to give the 
support of his authority to this decree, and observing, that it was more 
for his advantage to obey the Church in this matter, than to attempt to 
control it, by countenancing the heretical prelate. Yet none were more 
explicit than the Pontiffs in avowing the independence of the civil power 
within its own sphere, and in giving to sovereigns the honor due to their 
high station. With a jealous regard to the interests of truth, they united 
an unfeigned deference for civil rulers. The mutual relations of the ec- 
clesiastical and civil authorities were beautifully expressed by Pope 
Gelasius, at the close of the fifth century, in a letter of apology written 
to the Emperor Anastasius, who had complained that the Pontiff had 
not congratulated him on his accession to the imperial throne. Well- 
grounded suspicions of heterodoxy had caused this reserve, to which 
Gelasius alludes : " God forbid that a Roman prince should feel offended 
at the declaration of the truth ! There are two things, august emperor, 
whereby this world is governed, namely, the sacred authority of the Pon- 
tiffs and the royal power, wherein the weight of priestly authority is so 
much the greater, as in the divine judgment priests must render to the 
270 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



271 



Lord an account for kings themselves. For you know, most clement son, 
that although you preside over men, you devoutly bend the neck to the 
dispensers of the divine mysteries, and ask from them the means of sal- 
vation : and in the reception and proper administration of the heavenly 
sacraments, you know that you should be subject to them according to 
the religious rule, rather than preside over them. You are aware, then, 
that as to these things you depend on their judgment, and that they are 
not to be forced to compliance with your will. For if, as regards public 
order, the prelates of the Church, knowing that the empire has been con- 
fided to you by Divine Providence, obey your laws, lest they should 
appear to oppose your will in things of this world, with what affection 
should you obey them, who are appointed to dispense the awful mysteries ! 
Wherefore, as the Pontiffs incur a serious responsibility, if they suppress 
what they should declare for the honor of the Deity, so the danger is 
great of others who insolently refuse obedience. And if the hearts of 
the faithful should be submissive to all priests in general, who treat 
divine things properly, how much more should assent be yielded to the 
Prelate of this See, whom the Supreme Lord ordained to preside over all 
priests, and whom the piety of the Universal Church has always 
honored ! You clearly understand that no one can, by any human 
device, oppose the prerogative or confession of him, whom the voice of 
Christ preferred to all others, whom the holy Church has always acknow- 
ledged, and whom she now devoutly regards as her Primate/'* 

This has been deservedly regarded as an admirable exposition of the 
relations of Catholic princes to the prelacy. The power of the prince is 
supreme in the civil order : the power of the Pontiff is supreme in things 
spiritual. The civil and the ecclesiastical powers are from God : the former 
by His implied sanction of the means for maintaining social order ; the 
latter by the direct institution of Christ. In both, the sovereignty of 
God must be honored. The civil power extends to all things necessary 
for the maintenance and welfare of society ; but it cannot command any 
thing opposed to the divine law. The ecclesiastical authority is engaged 
in the promulgation of truth and the maintenance of discipline, with a 
due respect for public order, as regulated by the civil power. These prin- 
ciples were not lost sight of in the Middle Ages, since we find them set 
forth, in the very words of G-elasius, in a Council held at S. Maera in 
881,f and in the Council of Trosley, in 909. J Gregory II., in 730, ad- 
dressing Leo the Isaurian, bade him confine himself to the affairs of the 
empire, as the bishops applied all their solicitude to religious matters. 
" The bishops," he said, " being set over the churches, abstain from civil 



* Gelasii, ep. iv., ad Anastasium, col. 893, t. ii., Hard. 

f Cone. col. reg., vol. vi. col. 350. See also the letter of Stephen V. to the Emperor 
Basil, ib., col. 365. 
J lb., col. 307, cap. ii. 



272 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



affairs j so let the emperors abstain in like manner from church matters, 
and apply to the things which are intrusted to their charge." 

Catholic sovereigns, as members of the Church, are bound by her laws, 
and subject to the penalties which are attached to their transgression. 
The prince and the peasant, the master and the slave, share her privileges 
on the same conditions, and are liable to be deprived of them in punish- 
ment of infidelity or disobedience. Her arms are not carnal, but power- 
ful before God — she strikes with the apostolic rod, chastising the children 
whom she loves with maternal fondness, that they may correct the evil of 
their ways, and prove themselves worthy of the heavenly inheritance. 
The Pope, as head on earth of the Church, exercises, by divine right, 
authority over Catholic princes in the things that are of salvation. 
When by flagrant crimes they cause the name of God to be blasphemed, 
he may admonish and reprove them, as Nathan reproved David by the 
divine command : and, in case of contumacy, he may inflict on them 
ecclesiastical censures. The exercise of this power peculiarly suits the 
Chief Bishop, since local prelates could scarcely venture to say to their 
prince, " Thou art the man I" The majesty of the sovereign is also 
guarded, by reserving cases in which he is concerned to the mature and 
unbiassed judgment of the Pontiff. 

The means which, in the Middle Ages, were employed for the reforma- 
tion of princes, after admonition and threats, was the actual infliction of 
ecclesiastical censures. These were of two kinds, interdict and excom- 
munication. By the former the solemnities of public worship were ' sus- 
pended throughout the whole kingdom, the sacred functions of absolute 
necessity being, however, permitted at all times, and the mysteries pri- 
vately celebrated. This interruption of religious worship, casting a 
gloom over the whole nation, was a significant expression of the horror 
of the Church for the crime of the sovereign, in which respect it served 
as a reparation of the scandal. It was hoped, also, that by the general 
affliction which it occasioned, he would be awakened to a sense of his mis- 
conduct, and that he would, by speedy repentance, ward off any personal 
censure. The clouds which thickened around the throne foreboded the 
thunderbolt which was soon to fall on the impenitent monarch. When 
every other measure had failed to produce amendment, excommunication, 
the highest penalty which the Church can inflict, followed. By it the 
transgressor was cut off entirely from the communion of the faithful, and 
cast forth as a heathen and publican. Even as the incestuous Corinthian 
was delivered over by St. Paul to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, 
that the spirit might be saved in the day of Christ, the scandalous prince 
was deprived of all spiritual privileges, separated from the Church of 
God, and left to perish eternally, unless by repentance he atoned for his 
transgression. The infliction of this penalty was plainly within the 
sphere of ecclesiastical power, which can bind as well as loose, with the 



AUTHORITY OYER PRINCES. 



273 



assurance that Heaven will ratify the just exercise of this spiritual 
authority. In the commencement of the sixth century, Pope Symmachus 
excommunicated the heretical Emperor Anastasius, whom his predecessor, 
Gelasius, had addressed in the solemn language of admonition. The suc- 
cess with which this power was exercised, is attested by Leibnitz : " It is 
beyond question that the Popes checked many disorders, by their efforts 
in season and out of season, remonstrating with princes, as their au- 
thority enabled them to do, and threatening them with ecclesiastical 
censures."* 

Instances of this exercise of pontifical zeal abound in the history of 
the Church. Clement IV., on learning the victory obtained by James, 
King of Aragon, over the Moors, congratulated with him, admonishing 
him at the same time to subdue his own passions, by putting away from 
him Berengaria, the object of unlawful attachment. The prince pleaded 
the infirmity of his wife, Therasia, and asked for a divorce. The reply 
of the Pontiff began with these words : " How shall the Vicar of God 
separate those whom God has united?" Subsequently, James, having 
communicated to Clement his determination to engage in the holy war, 
was again admonished by him to dismiss his concubine in the first place, 
since no effort of zeal could otherwise be acceptable to our Lord : " You 
cannot," he observes, " please our crucified Lord, or avenge His wrongs, 
if you will not abstain from offending Him. Moreover, we wish you to 
understand, that unless you obey our admonitions, we shall force you, by 
ecclesiastical censures, to dismiss her."*j" 

Ladislaus, King of Pannonia,^ giving himself over to unbridled licen- 
tiousness, after several solemn admonitions, was excommunicated by the 
legate of Martin IV. The nobles, indignant at his excesses, rose up 
against him, and drove away his concubines. § 

In several instances injured queens found succor and protection from 
the father of the faithful, who, by the threat of ecclesiastical censures, 
forced their lord to restore to them their rights. Theutberge, the wife of 
Lothaire I., was divorced from her husband on an allegation of incest, 
which, although groundless, she was prevailed on to admit, and under 
this pretext the divorce was approved of in the local Councils of Metz 
and Aix-la-Chapelle. Even the legates of Nicholas I. were induced to 
sanction it : but the Pope himself nobly vindicated the cause of the 
calumniated queen ; annulled the decrees of the Councils, and the acts of 
his legates ; ordered the monarch, under penalty of excommunication, to 
dismiss YYaldrade, his concubine, whom he had taken as a lawful wife ; 
refused to give any credit to the forced confession of the queen, and suc- 
cessfully maintained her rights. Guizot remarks, that this exercise of 



* Dissert, i., de act. publ. usu op. t. iv. p. 299. 
j Now Sclavonia, and part of Hungary. 

13 



f Ravnald, an. 1267. 
§ lb., an. 1281. 



274 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



pontifical supremacy was applauded by the nation generally, because it 
was well known to be founded on justice. It is no slight eulogium of 
the Holy See that it successfully supported the cause of an injured 
woman against a licentious and powerful prince. Celestine III., and his 
successor, Innocent III., with admirable constancy maintained the cause 
of Ingelburga, the wife of Philip Augustus.* Friendless in a foreign 
land, the object of aversion to hini to whom she had plighted her affec- 
tions, the unfortunate Danish, princess felt that though France was false, 
her voice could reach her spiritual father, at wbose rebuke the proudest 
monarchs trembled. After sixteen years of banishment from the palace, 
she was reinstated in her rights. 

Philip L of France, dismissing his lawful wife, gave to his people the 
enormous scandal of living in open adultery with Bertrade, who had for- 
saken her husband, Fulco, Count of Angiers. Urban EL, first by his legate, 
and afterward in person, hurled excommunication against him in two suc- 
cessive Councils. The licentious prince soon presented himself as a peni- 
tent in the Council of Xemours, and obtained absolution, on putting away 
the object of his unlawful attachment. Having subsequently relapsed, 
he was punished with the same censure, from which he was again released 
by the authority of Paschal EL, on appearing in an assembly of bishops, 
with bare feet, in the attitude of penance, and swearing on the holy gos- 
pels that he would shun all criminal intercourse, and all just occasion of 
suspicion. This was an act of homage to the Christian law — an atone- 
ment for its violation. It was well that the prince who had caused the 
name of Christ to be blasphemed, should sue for pardon, by making pub- 
lic acknowledgment of his sin, and giving satisfactory evidence of amend- 
ment. Hallam observes : u The submission of such a prince, not feebly 
superstitious, like his predecessor Piobert, nor vexed with seditions, like 
the Emperor Henry TV., but brave, firm, and victorious, is perhaps the 
proudest trophy in the scutcheon of Koine. 

In many instances the Popes inflicted censures on princes who violated 
the ecclesiastical law, by marrying within the forbidden degrees. The 
justice of this exercise of authority will strike only those who acknow- 
ledge the force of those laws. I would merely remark, that the princes 
were subject to them equally as the humblest of the faithful, and con- 
sequently liable to be punished by ecclesiastical censures for their 
violation, One end of these laws is to preserve the purity of morals, by 
taking away the hope of intermarriage from such as are placed in inti- 
mate relations in domestic life, , by reason, of kindred. If their force had 
not been maintained in regard to princes, as well as their subjects, not 
only would discipline have suffered, but Christian morals would have been 



* See Life of Innocent ILL, by Hurter. Wlnle jet a Lutheran, Hurter devoted twenty 
years of diligent research to the compilation of this splendid biography. 
| Middle Ages, ch. vit 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



275 



deeply injured. Robert, King of France, was commanded by Gregory 
V. in the Roman council, in 998, to separate from Berta, his blood- 
relation, under penalty of anathema. The prince yielded to the threat. 
"It is known," says Alichaud, "that the excommunication fulminated 
against Philip L, as well as others subsequently hurled against Louis 
VIE. and Philip Augustus, were in a great measure grounded on the 
violation of the laws of marriage. It may then be observed that the 
power of the Popes served to maintain the sanctity of an institution 
which is the first basis of society. In barbarous ages, what other barrier 
could be opposed to licentiousness in a contract in which the passions 
have so great a share f?* 



I 2.— IX SECULAR CONCERNS. 

Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the Middle Ages, than 
the interference of the Popes in the controversies of princes and the in- 
ternal dissensions of kingdoms and republics. To understand this phe- 
nomenon, we must take into consideration the position which they occu- 
pied in regard to the temporal powers. The conversion of princes to 
Christianity disposed them to regard with reverence the teaching of the 
Church, and to seek counsel and direction in the moral difficulties which 
occurred in the exercise of the governing power. They felt bound to use 
it conformably to the laws of God and of His Church, and pledged them- 
selves to do so by the oath of coronation. When they bowed to receive 
their diadems from the consecrated hands of the Pontiff, they regarded 
themselves as exercising, with dependence on the King of kings, a dele- 
gated sovereignty. The independent action of the Bishop of Rome, 
freed from the yoke of Eastern emperors, and endowed with a con- 
siderable principality, was rendered sacred by his spiritual supremacy. 
The memory of the glories of ancient Rome was almost obliterated, since 
barbarian hordes had overrun her territories, and all was confusion and 
disorder, when Leo III., at the opening of the ninth century, felt him- 
self compelled to call Charlemagne to the imperial throne. At the un- 
expected-salutation given to the prince, amid the solemnities of mass, at 
the altar of St. Peter's, thousands of Romans and strangers re-echoed 
with deafening acclamations: "Long live the august emperor of the Ro- 
mans t M All regarded the act as inspired, and doubted not that order 
and harmony would arise from chaos, at the bidding of the holy Pontiff. 
From that time the Bishop of Rome necessarily enjoyed an immense 
influence over the empire, and the kingdoms which arose under its 
shadow ; and he was regarded by princes and people as their father and 



* Histoire des Croisades, 1. L n, 102. 



276 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES 



ju • He created the new order of things, assigning to each potentate 

his place in the political world, and controlling by laws the movements 
of each, in order to maintain the general harmony. His relations to the 
empire were most direct, since he determined who should elect the em- 
peror, and exercised the right of examining whether the individual 
chosen was admissible. The power exercised by the Popes in designating 
the emperor, and giving the royal title to the chiefs of various nations, in 
a word, regulating the whole political order, cannot fairly be branded as 
an usurpation, since it was vested in them by the force of circumstances ; 
their spiritual office placing them at the head of the Christian world, and 
inspiring confidence in the justice and wisdom of their acts. It was not 
a result of positive concessions made by the respective nations, although 
it was acquiesced in and confirmed by the free and frequent acts of people 
and princes. Xeither was it a divine prerogative of their office ; but it 
naturally grew out of their ecclesiastical relations to the body of Chris- 
tians, and was strengthened and sustained by their sacred character. 
The imperfect civilization of the Northern nations converted to the faith, 
after their invasion of the Southern provinces of Europe, rendered it ne- 
cessary for them to be guided and directed, and disposed them to regard 
with reverence the acts of that authority which their Christian teachers 
had led them to consider as supreme in the things of salvation. Thus, 
without effort, the Popes found themselves invested with a kind of tem- 
poral supremacy, and enabled to bestow crowns and sceptres, while they 
themselves possessed only a small principality, which was embarrassed or 
controlled by a municipal administration, and often wrested from their 
hands. It so happened that the authority of the Pope was invoked in 
support of the reigning princes, or to recall them to duty : and his tri- 
bunal was regarded as the supreme court of the Christian confederacy. 
It seemed a common instinct of all Christian nations to appeal to his 
justice, for the redress of every grievance for which the local authority 
proved insufficient, and to implore his power for the punishment of those 
whose station placed them beyond the reach of municipal law. He was, 
in fact, by common consent, judge, not only in causes strictly ecclesi- 
astical, or in the private concerns of obscure individuals, but in civil mat- 
ters, where flagrant wrongs were perpetrate ! by crowned heads. He was 
called on to interpose his authority : he was blamed if he hesitated : he 
was feared by delinquents of every class, by the haughty baron and 
proud emperor, as well as by the humble vassal : and when the thunder 
of his censure rolled, the prison doors flew open, the hand of avarice let 
£all the wages of injustice, and the knees of the oppressor beat together. 

It is certainly in the power of nations to constitute a supreme tribunal 
to adjust their controversies : and the fact of its establishment is equally 



* See Manuel d'Hhtoire dn 21 07 en Age, par J. Moeller. YoL i. ch. viiL §ii. p. 418. 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



277 



proved by their acts, as by any formal compact. If they thereby parted 
with any portion of their sovereignty and independence, it was with great 
advantage to their common interests. Yoltaire himself has remarked, 
that "the interest of mankind requires a restraint on sovereigns, and 
protection for their subjects : this power might be in the hands of the 
Popes, in virtue of a universal compact. The Pontiffs, interfering in 
temporal disputes only with a view to settle them, admonishing kings and 
nations of their duties, reproving their crimes, reserving excommunica- 
tions for great enormities, would have been always regarded as holding 
the place of G-od on earth; but men now prefer to have the laws and 
usages of their country as their only protection, although the laws are 
frequently disregarded, and corrupt usages prevail. "* " We must/' says 
Saint-Priest, "agree with the Koman school, that the temporal power of 
the Holy See was far less the result of usurpation, than a consequence of 
the policy, or rather of the false position of princes. The secular powers 
themselves, in their rivalries, wars, remorses, and scruples, invoked pon- 
tifical intervention, and sought its support sometimes for their inferiority 
in arms, sometimes for their trepidation and weakness of niind/'f We 
may be allowed to think that the position thus taken was at once natural 
and advantageous to society, since it was conformable to the relations in 
which the princes already stood in the spiritual order, and it was calcu- 
lated to bring about an amicable adjustment of dangerous controversies^ 
and prevent the horrors of war, into which nations are so often plunged 
by the temerity of their rulers. What diplomacy effects in modern times 
by management and mutual concession, was accomplished in the Middle 
Ages by the judgment and persuasion of the father of princes and 
people. Michaad, the recent historian of the Crusades, says: "Com- 
plaints were sometimes made of the injustice of the judgment pro- 
nounced by the head of the Church, but his right to judge Christian 
princes was scarcely called in question, and the nations almost uniformly 
received his judgments without a murmur." j 



* This extraordinary avovral is made in reference to the penance performed by Henry 
II. for having given occasion to the assassination of St. Thomas Becket. The reader 
Trill be pleased to read the original words: "H devait se repentir d'un assassinat ; Fin- 
teret du genre humain demande un frein qui retienne les souverains, et qui mette a 
convert la vie des peuples. Ce frein de la religion aurait pii etre par une convention 
universelle dans la main des Papes, comme nous l'avons deja remarque. Ces premiers 
pontifes en ne se melant des querelles temporelies que pour les appaiser, en avertissant 
les rois et les peuples de leurs devoirs, en reprenant leurs crimes, en reservant les excom- 
munications pour les grands attentats, auraient toujours ete regardes comme des images 
de Dieu sur la terre : mais les hommes sont reduits a. n'avoir pour leur defense que les 
loix et les moeurs de leur pays ; loix souvent meprisees, et moeurs souvent corrompues." 
Essai sur l'Histoixe Generale, cb. xliv. t. ii. 

| Histoire de la Royaute, vol. ii. lviii. p. 359. 

% Hist, des Croisades, t. iv. p. 163 



27S 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



It may be proper to give instances of the eagerness vrith which princes 
sought from the Popes the recognition of their royal titles, or to be pro- 
moted to the royal dignity, and of the submission which they professed 
to the pontifical authority. John VIII. reminds Michael, King of the 
Bulgarians, that, on embracing Christianity, he submitted to the govern- 
ment of Peter the apostle, and of his successors, and promised obedience.* 
St. Stephen, King of Hungary, acknowledged to have received his crown 
and title from Sylvester II. Alphonsus, Duke of Portugal, received the 
royal title from Alexander III., in reward of his exploits against the 
Arabs. Premislaus was recognised as King of Bohemia by Innocent 
III., at the solicitation of the Emperor Otho. Calo-Joannes obtained 
from the same Pontiff the crown and title of King of the Bulgarians. 
Peter of Aragon was not content with the title which his predecessors 
had borne, but asked of Innocent to be solemnly crowned, that a religious 
sanction might be given to his authority. Stephen, on succeeding to the 
crown of England, swore to preserve the liberty of the Church, and 
avowed that he had been chosen king with the assent of the clergy and 
the people, and had been confirmed in the kingdom by Innocent, Pontiff 
of the Holy Roman See.t Theobald, King of Navarre, asked of Alex- 
ander IV. the privilege of being anointed king with the solemn rite pre- 
scribed by the Church; which being granted, he afterward sought per- 
mission for his successors to use the royal title, when in accordance with 
the national usage they should be chosen to occupy the throne, being 
raised on a shield, or on the shoulders of men, before the unction was 
perfi nned. 

The King of Servia, on abandoning schism, sent an embassy to Hono- 
rius LTI. to obtain the pontifical recognition of his royal title. This act 
was intended to secure to the prince his proper place in the great Chris- 
tian confederacy. Addressing the Pontiff, he says : " As all Christians 
love and honor you, and regard you as their father and lord, so we desire 
to be styled a child of the holy Boman Church, and your child; being 
anxious that the blessing and confirmation of God, and yours, should 
always be manifest on our crown and land. "J Daniel, Duke of Russia, 
in 1246, obtained the royal crown and title from the legate of Inno- 
cent IV. The princes were not insensible of their titles to royal power, 
as derived from descent, conquest, or popular will ; but they felt the ad- 
vantage of the Pontiff" s sanction and recognition, in reference to other 
sovereigns and to their own people ; and they sought for a divine blessing 
through his ministry. Thus Branimer, a Sclavonian prinee, having 
professed fidelity and obedience to blessed Peter, John \ III., on the least 
of our Lord's Ascension, pronounced a solemn blessing on him and on 
his people, at the altar of St. Peter.§ 



an Bulg. 



t Baron-, an. 1135. p. 341. 



AUTHORITY OYER PRINCES. 



279 



Many princes, from a feeling of devotion to the Holy See, freely offered 
themselves as vassals of St. Peter, which, according to the notions then 
prevalent, implied no degradation, but rather independence of the im- 
perial power, with a nominal subjection to the Pontiff. The Normans 
manifested a desire to return to the obedience of the Holy See, as a 
means of securing their independence of the empire. St. Gregory VII. 
wrote to Wifred of Milan : "Be it known to you, then, that the Normans 
are making to us overtures of peace, which they would most willingly 
have concluded ere this, and have given full satisfaction to Blessed Peter, 
whom alone, after the Lord, they desire to have for their lord and em- 
peror, had we assented to their petition in certain particulars."* "We 
suppose that you well know," says he to Grusa, Duke of Hungary, "that 
the kingdom of Hungary, as also other most noble kingdoms, should 
enjoy independence, and be subject to the king of no other realm, but 
only to the holy and universal Church of Eome, our mother, who does 
not treat her subjects as slaves, but embraces all as children. "f The 
apostolic King of Hungary gloried in this vassalage : the King of Por- 
tugal made his dominions tributary : the King of Aragon swore fealty : 
the King of Dalmatia paid tribute to the Pope as liege lord : and Ste- 
phen, and Henry II. of England, before the humiliation of J ohn, ac- 
knowledged that England was a fief of the Holy See. It is not just to 
form to ourselves a false idea of this dependence, and thence to take 
occasion to despise the princes who acknowledged it, and to censure the 
Popes who enforced it. It consisted chiefly in the payment of a small 
annual pension toward the general fund, for the most important wants of 
the Church, and in the manifestation of greater zeal for the defence of 
the Holy See, when assailed by powerful enemies. It disposed the prince 
to listen with docility to the admonitions of the Pontiff, in behalf of 
religion and of the people, and it procured for him pontifical influence 
and protection, when the royal authority was assailed by rebels, or by 
rival princes. YYhen Waldemar, King of Denmark, a vassal of the Holy 
See, was thrown into prison by Henry, Count of Zeverin, Honorius III., 
at the instance of the prelates and nobles, interposed his authority to 
rescue the king, and urged the emperor, Frederick, to come to his relief, 
beseeching him, however, to spare the life of the rebel count. J John, of 
England, got the support of Innocent against the revolted barons : whose 
just claims the Pontiff, nevertheless, promised to sustain, if they would 
consent to lay down their arms. In Sicily, and other original possessions 
of the Holy See, greater authority was claimed by the Pope, as liege 
lord ) but in kingdoms voluntarily made feudatory, the dependence was 
almost nominal. Even Hallam avows the favorable influence of this 
subjection: "Peter, King of Aragon, received at Kome the belt of 
knighthood, and the royal crown, from the hands of Innocent III.; he 



* Ep. xt. 1. iii. 



f Ep. lxiii. 1. ii. 



% Raynald., an. 1223. 



280 



AUTHORITY OVER PRINCES. 



took an oath of perpetual fealty and obedience to him and his successors; 
he surrendered his kingdom, and accepted it again to be held by an 
annual tribute, in return for the protection of the Apostolic See. This 
strange conversion of kingdoms into spiritual fiefs was intended as the 
price of security from ambitious neighbors, and may be deemed analogous 
to the change of allodial into feudal, or more strictly to that of lay into 
ecclesiastical tenure, -which was frequent during the turbulence of the 
darker ages."* 

Although the social relations of the Popes to the secular powers gave 
occasion to their interference in temporal controversies, yet they did not 
act as temporal superiors, but they availed themselves of their position to 
apply the maxims of the Christian law to the subjects in dispute, and 
used their spiritual authority, by ecclesiastical censures, to enforce their 
judgment. The principles on which they acted were distinctly stated by 
Innocent III., when Philip of France resisted his interference, to stop the 
ravages of war between him and Richard Coeur de Lion. Disclaiming 
distinctly all right to judge of the title to the fief in dispute,")* he insisted 
that he was authorized to take away the privileges of ecclesiastical com- 
munion, from a prince who wantonly shed human blood, while he could ob- 
tain his just demands by amicable arbitration : " No one doubts/' he says, 
"that it belongs to our office to judge of the things which appertain to 
the salvation or damnation of the soul. Is it not deserving of eternal 
damnation, and of the loss of eternal life, to nourish discord, to attack 
those who are of the household of the faith, to destroy religious establish- 
ments, to give over to pillage the property destined for the wants and 
advantage of religious men, to oppress virgins consecrated to God?" 
" Hearken, then, dearly beloved son, not to, our word, but rather to the 
word of the Word, which was in the beginning with God, and which 
finally was made flesh, and dwelt among us : 'If thy brother sin against 
thee, go and repfove him' between him and thee alone. If he will not 
hear thee, take with thee two or three, that in the mouth of two or three 
witnesses every word may stand. But if he will not hear them, tell the 
Church ; and if he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the 
heathen and publican.' Behold ! the King of England, your brother, 
brother not by carnal kindred, but in the unity of faith, complains that 
you sin against him, and stretch forth your hands to injure him, as you 
have already done ; he has rebuked you already between him and you 
alone, both by letters and by word of mouth, not once, but frequently, 
and warned you to desist from injuring him. He has taken with him not 
merely two or three witnesses, but many nobles, to renew the bonds of 
peace which were broken, and to use their influence to induce you to 

* Middle Ages, ch. vii. 

± "Non ratione feudi, eujus ad eurn spectat judicium, sed oecasione peccati, cujas ad 
nos pertinet sine dubitatione censura." Ep. clxvi., apud Raynald, an. 1203. 



AUTHORITY OYER PRINCES. 



281 



desist from wrong. But inasmuch as hitherto he has not succeeded with 
your highness, he has denounced you to the Church, as sinning against 
him : and the Church has chosen to address you with maternal affection, 
rather than to use her judicial power, and therefore she has not authori- 
tatively rebuked you^— but mildly admonished you to desist from injuring 
your brother, and to make with him a lasting peace, or, at least, a truce. 
What, then, remains, if you refuse to hear the Church, as hitherto 
you have refused, but, it pains us to say it, to regard you as a heathen 
and a publican, and to shun you after the first and second rebuke ? If 
we must offend either you or Grod, we choose rather to appease Him, 
although we incur your displeasure, than please an earthly king by 
offending the Divine Ruler. — Shall we hesitate to proceed according to 
the commandment of the Lord, when we shall have more fully investi- 
gated the case, and ascertained the truth ? Shall we dissemble the car- 
nage of bodies and ruin of souls, and not declare to the wicked their im- 
piety, and restrain the violent from outrage V* Honorius III., in 1225, 
insisted that, as sovereign Pontiff, he had a right to extirpate mortal sin, 
even when committed by kings. f Even Boniface VIII. rejected, as an 
absurd calumny, the charge of his having alleged that the King of 
France held the crown by his concession, or was dependent on him in the 
civil government, and observed that his studies of jurisprudence during 
fifty years would not suffer him to entertain so strange a pretension : but 
he added that the king himself could not deny that he was subject to 
the high authority of the Pontiff in what regarded sin. J 

These views were generally entertained, so that sovereigns themselves 
put them forward with the greatest earnestness, when they found it neces- 
sary to implore pontifical authority against other princes. Richard Cceur 
de Lion, on his return from Palestine, was treacherously arrested by the 
Duke of Austria, and thrown into prison. His mother, Queen Eleanor, 
appealed to Celestine HI. to use his spiritual sword, in order to force the 
duke to relax his grasp. She was confident that her son would be set at 
liberty, if Celestine menaced to strike with excommunication those who 
held him a prisoner. Accordingly, Leopold, Duke of Austria, was sub- 
jected to this penalty, with which even the emperor and King of France 
were threatened, being understood to have concurred in the arrest. 
These measures resulted in the liberation of the captive prince. King 
Richard himself, when set at liberty, implored the pontifical power for 
the liberation of his hostages, and induced Celestine to issue an excom- 
munication against the Duke of Austria, and all others who had con- 
curred in his imprisonment, contrary to the security guaranteed to the 
Crusaders. § The request was complied with, and the Bishop of Yerona 
was directed by the Pope to issue the sentence, which, however, failed to 



* Apud Raynald, an. 1203. 

± See Pagi, Brev. Gest. Rom. Pont., vol. iii. p. 540. 



| Ep. 169, Rai., n. 30. 

§ Baron., an. 1195, p. SS6. 



282 



AUTHORITY OYER PRINCES. 



move the duke, until an accident brought him to the verge of eternity, 
when he humbly submitted to the Papal injunctions. 

This may imply authority at all times in secular concerns, as far as 
they involve moral principle, to be enforced by ecclesiastical censures. 
The divine law, doubtless, embraces all classes of men, princes and 
people, and all varieties of human actions, political as well as personal. 
The chief Pastor of the Church is placed on his high eminence, to pro- 
claim the command of God, and in His name to instruct in justice those 
that judge the earth. As expounder of the moral law, he speaks to all 
with power and authority, condemning all that God has forbidden, and 
inculcating the observance of each divine commandment. He can cast 
forth from the Church every one, prince or subject, who is notoriously 
guilty of flagrant immorality, if he will not yield to paternal admonition. 
But secular concerns are not, of themselves, subject to his cognizance : 
and the complicated social relations which arise from the free acts of in- 
dividuals, or from public law, or from the action of the civil authorities, 
are not the matter of his judgment, unless where they involve a violation 
of the great principles of Christian morality. In the Middle Ages, 
kings and nations implored his judgment, and consequently brought 
within the sphere of his authority those secular transactions and contro- 
versies, of which otherwise he might have said, in the words of our 
Redeemer, to those who called for his interference : " TYho hath ap- 
pointed me judge over you?"* Whencesoever the conviction of his 
right to take cognizance of them may be supposed to have arisen, it was 
universally admitted, and it was consequently a part of the public and 
common law of nations. Guizot testifies that it was generally believed, 
in the middle of the ninth century, that he was above temporal govern- 
ments, even in temporal affairs, when connected with religion :f he 
might have qualified it by adding, in their moral aspect, since he ob- 
serves that it was by developing the principles of morality ecclesiastics 
exercised power over governments. 

The key to the whole history of the Middle Ages appears to us to be 
the sentiment then prevailing, that Christian principle should regulate 
all the departments of government and all the relations of life. "VYe 
do not think that the authority of the Popes over sovereigns is to be 
accounted for, merely by reason of the relations in which they actually 
stood to them, or of the concessions which had been made by former 
princes. On the contrary, we trace those concessions and relations to 
the persuasion which was universal, that the head of the Christian 
Church was the fittest arbiter of the respective obligations of princes 
and their subjects, and the natural judge of all, in what regarded the 
application of the Christian maxims to society. 



Luke sii. 14. 



f Cours d'Bistoire Moderne, t. iii. p. 81. 



CHAPTER III. 



Philanthropists often speculate on the propriety of establishing a 
peace tribunal, to settle, without " the proud control of fierce and bloody 
war," the various controversies which may arise among nations : yet 
they seldom reflect that such a tribunal existed in the Middle Ages, in 
the person of the Roman Pontiff. The warlike spirit of the Northern 
barbarians, which still survived in tlieir descendants, should be under- 
stood, in order fully to appreciate the services which the Popes, in re- 
straining it, rendered to society. Their efforts were not always success- 
ful, but their merit was not on that account the less in endeavoring to 
stem the torrent of human passion • and their success was sufficient to 
entitle them to the praise of having effectually labored to substitute 
moral and religious influence for brute force. As ministers of the Prince 
of peace, they often interposed spontaneously, and with arms powerful 
before God opposed the crowned marauder, who rushed forward to shed 
human blood. The fathers of the Council of Kheims, in 1119, under 
the presidency of Calistus II., were engaged in ecclesiastical deliberations, 
when the Pontiff communicated to them overtures of peace, which had 
reached him from Henry V. He informed them that he must repair to 
the place which the emperor had appointed for an interview, promising to 
return to close the Council : " Afterward," said he, "I shall wait on the 
King of England, my god-child and relative, and exhort him and Count 
Theobald, his nephew, and others who are at variance, to come to a 
reconciliation, that each, for the love of God, may do justice to the other, 
and according to the law of God, all of them being pacified, may abandon 
war, and with their subjects enjoy the security of perfect peace. But 
such as obey not our admonitions, and continue to disturb the public 
peace, I will strike with the awful sentence of anathema."* The 
benevolent intentions of the Pontiff were defeated for a time by the wiles 
and machinations of the fifth Henry, who, however, after many vain 
struggles against the authority of the Church, at length renounced his 
pretensions to the right of investing prelates with their sacred office by 
delivering to them the ring and crosier, the symbols of ecclesiastical 

* Cone. Rheinens. acta, col. 241, t. xxi., coll. Mansi. 

2S3 



284 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



authority, and was content with giving them the temporal appanage of 
their office by stretching toward them the royal sceptre. Thus, in the 
year 1123, was happily terminated the strife between the Popes and em- 
perors, which had fiercely raged during half a century. 

In the same venerable assembly appeared Louis the Fat, King of 
France, surrounded by his nobles ; and having advanced forward to the 
platform on which the Pope was enthroned, he urged his complaint 
against the English king : " I come/' he said, u with my barons, to this 
holy assembly to seek counsel, my lord the Pope : and you, reverend pre- 
lates, hear me. The King of England has violently invaded Normandy, 
a province of my kingdom : he has treated in a detestable manner Duke 
Robert, his own brother and my vassal, whom he has seized, and at this 
time actually holds prisoner. I have frequently demanded his liberation, 
through bishops and counts, whom I sent to him for this object, but all 
without effect. William, the son of the captive duke, stands here before 
you, despoiled of the inheritance of his father."* This address shows 
the confidence with which sovereigns themselves appealed to the Pontiff, 
in the most solemn circumstances, to obtain through his influence what 
might not be otherwise hoped for, without the shedding of much blood. 

Long before this period, the mediatorial offices of the Pope were sought 
by princes unable to resist the superior force which threatened them. In 
the year 787, Thassilo, Duke of Bavaria, implored Adrian I. to intercede 
with Charlemagne, and obtain for him equitable terms. The charity of 
the Pontiff led him to accept the commission j but when the ambassadors 
of the duke professed themselves unauthorized to accede to the conditions 
which were agreed on with the emperor, Adrian judged that he could 
employ the censures of the Church against him, on account of his bad 
faith, and declared that the monarch would be guiltless of the blood 
which might be shed in chastising the perfidious prince. "While the im- 
perial troops beseiged the ' capital of Hungary, the king, Andrew, sought 
the mediation of St. Leo IX. The Pontiff willingly undertook the 
journey to Germany, in order to procure peace, which, however, the 
jealousy of some courtiers or the fickleness of the king prevented.*!" 

Gregory IV., on presenting himself to Louis, against whom Lothaire, 
his son and colleague in the empire, had revolted, protested that he came 
only to restore peace, which our Divine Redeemer wished to be main- 
tained by all His disciples. The refusal of the emperor to come to an 
accommodation, led to the defection of his troops, which forced him to 
abandon the contest. 

The Emperor Henry II. complained to the Council of Tours, over 
which Victor II. presided, that Ferdinand, King of Spain, took on him- 



* Ibidem, col. 238. 

f Wibert in vita S. Leonis, 1. ii. c. 8. Herman Contractus throws the blame on the 
kiag. 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



285 



self the imperial title. The Council menaced to excommunicate the 
king, and lay the kingdom under interdict, if he did not abandon his pre- 
tensions : to which he accordingly consented, declaring his entire sub- 
mission to the judgment of the Apostolic See. On the death of the 
emperor, great apprehensions were entertained of disturbances on the 
part of several princes, to avert which the Pope, to whom the emperor, 
when dying, had intrusted the charge of his son, a youth, assembled a 
Council at Cologne, and gained over Baldwin and Godfrey, and effectually 
prevented civil war. Thus he successfully employed his influence and 
authority to preserve peace. 

It was at the instance of Paschal II. that St. Anselm used his best 
efforts to bring about an amicable settlement between Henry I. of 
England, and his brother Robert, who, by right of seniority, claimed the 
crown. When every overture for peace was rejected, the prelate, on the 
eve of battle, exhorted the nobles to be true to their allegiance, which 
they had pledged to Henry, threatening Robert with excommunication if 
he continued to disturb the public peace. These measures proved effec- 
tual, the prince choosing rather to forego his claim than fall under the 
censures of the Church, by engaging in a bloody contest. 

On occasion of war between the republics of Genoa and Pisa, Inno- 
cent II. repaired to the latter city, and summoned thither the reprenta- 
tives of the Genoese interests, who, together with the Pisans, swore to 
abide by his commands, and accordingly made peace. Clement III. sent 
a cardinal legate to Henry II. of England and Louis VI. of France, 
exhorting them to peace, in order to unite in the effort to liberate the 
Holy Land. Entreaty, persuasion, and threats were successively em- 
ployed, until at length the princes consented to abide by the judgment 
of the legate, and of four archbishops, two on the part of each king. In 
proceeding to the adjudication of this controversy, the judges threatened 
to excommunicate any one who should strive to prevent the conclusion of 
peace. 

Innocent III., in the Council of Lateran, enjoined a general peace 
among all Christians, for four years at least. * He fell sick unto death 
on a journey which he undertook with a view to induce the Pisans, 
Genoese, and Lombards, to make peace, and unite in the Crusade. 
When James, King of Aragon, had made war on Simon, Count of Mont- 
fort, Honorius III. depatched ambassadors to enjoin peace, offering to 
take cognizance of the causes of dispute, if the parties would submit 
them to the apostolic judgment, and threatening them with anathema in 
case they persevered in the war. Honorius III. sent a legate to Louis 
VIII. of France, to induce him to make a truce with Henry, King of 
England, which, however, he failed to accomplish. He strictly forbade 
Henry to attack Louis while engaged in the Albigensian war. 



* Expeditio pro recup. terra sancta. 



286 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



John XXI. exerted all his influence with Philip, King of France, 
and Alpbonsus, King of Castile, to produce a reconciliation between 
them, that both princes might unite in succoring the Eastern Christians. 
To the former he wrote in these terms : " "VVe admonish, ask, and 
earnestly exhort and beseech your royal highness, by the sprinkling of 
the blood of Jesus Christ, attentively to reflect that the execution of the 
affairs connected with the divine glory, in which you are to be the chief 
actor, is impeded by this misunderstanding, and to turn to meekness what 
seems disposed to anger, and prepare and change your royal mind to the 
good of peace, and unity of concord. " The Pontiff proffered his kind 
offices to settle the matters in dispute : "If any dispute shall remain be- 
tween you and the aforesaid king, the solicitude of the Apostolic See 
will not be wanting ; she offers herself, without sparing labor, to extin- 
guish, to the utmost of her power, all matter of disagreement between 
you and the aforesaid king, and to procure and maintain unity with 
great care."* He authorized his legate to restrain by ecclesiastical 
censures both kings, or whichever should attack the other. 

Nicholas III. urged Michael Palceologus, the Greek emperor, Charles, 
King of Sicily, and the Emperor Philip, to submit their disputes to his 
decision, rather than engage in war.f By his persuasion Rodulph, King 
of the Romans,! made peace with Charles, King of Sicily, and yielded 
to him Provence, saving the rights of Margaret, Queen of the French. 

Edward of England, and Philip the Fair of France, being engaged in 
war, Boniface VIII. sent ambassadors, most earnestly exhorting them to 
peace. He authorized the legates to threaten the infliction of censures, 
should they persist; declaring it to be unworthy of Christian princes to 
lead their subjects to mutual slaughter. What to us may appear strange, 
is, that the Pontiff took upon himself to order a truce to be observed for 
a year between the contending princes, and prolonged it for two years, 
under penalty of excommunication. § The attempt to interfere with the 
military operations of sovereigns, is an extraordinary instance of ecclesi- 
astical power; but it was then thought that the penalty of exclusion 
from the Church might be inflicted by her ruler on princes acknowledg- 
ing her authority, who recklessly sacrificed human life in a contest, 
which, during the suspension of hostilities, might be amicably adjusted. 
Both kings, in fact, sent commissioners to Rome to represent their re- 
spective rights, and the Pontiff pronounced judgment between them, dis- 



* Apud Rayn., an. 1276. f Ibidem, an. 1278. 

X This title was given to the emperor elect, before his coronation. Speaking of the 
right over Italy acquired by the emperor chosen by the German princes, Hallam says : 
"It was an equally fundamental rule, that the elected King of Germany coxxld not assume 
the title of Roman emperor until his consecration by the Pope. The middle appellation 
of King of the Romans, was invented as a sort of approximation to the imperial dig- 
nity." Middle Ages, p. i. ch. iii. 

I Apud Rayn., an. 1296. 



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287 



pensing, at the same time, in the ecclesiastical laws, that their reconcilia- 
tion might be insured by intermarriage of the English king and his son 
with the sister and daughter of the French monarch. With threats of 
censure, Boniface likewise commanded Adolphus, King of the Romans, 
to desist from hostilities against Philip, and urged the three princes to 
submit their disputes to the pontifical decision. He was entirely suc- 
cessful in his efforts to reconcile Charles II., King of Sicily, with James 
of Aragon. When the Venetians and Genoese threatened each other 
with war, Boniface enjoined a truce, that their mutual complaints might 
be heard by him, and adjusted without bloodshed. The Venetians ac- 
quiesced in the proposal, in despite of which the Genoese made hostile 
demonstrations, which the Pontiff left the more docile Venetians free to 
repel. - 

Oftentimes both parties simultaneously invoked the pontifical judgment, 
making the Pope umpire for the termination of their disputes. Thus 
Honorius III. was called on to judge between Frederick II. and various 
cities of Lombardy, and he succeeded in effecting a reconciliation. When 
the war had broken out anew, through the perfidy of the emperor, Gre- 
gory IX., who then occupied the papal chair, acted in the capacity of 
pacific judge, providing with paternal solicitude for the imperial interests, 
and for the security of the cities. 

The Pontiff was sometimes implored by the legitimate claimant of a 
throne to use his spiritual authority against an unlawful aspirant. At 
the solicitation of Louis II., the legal heir of the kingdom of his de- 
ceased brother, Adrian II. threatened the nobles with censure, should 
they favor ,the usurpation of Charles, the uncle of the deceased so- 
vereign.* John VIIL, in like manner, came to the aid of Charles the 
Bald, when his dominions were invaded by his brother Louis, and com- 
manded the bishops, under pain of anathema, to use their influence to 
prevent further depredations. This interference was in accordance with 
the general feeling of the age, which regarded the act of the Pontiff as a 
declaration of right, by which even a weak prince was supported in his 
struggle against superior force, and a powerful monarch received moral 
strength in public opinion, which could not be derived from mere success 
on the field of battle. 

When nations were involved in the horrors of civil war, or were 
threatened with them, the religious influence of the Pontiff was often im- 
plored by sovereigns and subjects to restore order, and secure the rights 
of all. King Louis of France complained to the bishops assembled in 
Council, in the year 948, at Ingilenheim, under the presidency of the 
Pope's legate, of the revolt and usurpation of Hugh, Count of Paris : 
against whom the fathers, in conformity with the fourth Council of To- 
ledo, threatened excommunication, if he persisted in his rebellion. t 



* Pleury, Hist. Eccl., 1. li. an. 869. 



f Cone. col. reg., vol. vi. col. 605. 



288 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



Pope Agapetus, in a Roman Council, confirmed their sentence. Not 
long before, Stephen IX. had used his influence and authority success- 
fully to induce the French nobles to return to the obedience of Louis 
VI., against whom they had revolted. In this he followed the maxims 
of the apostles, who taught men to obey their rulers, even if personally 
unworthy ; and his remonstrances were listened to the more patiently and 
respectfully, because he addressed them as the common father of all, not 
as a royal partisan, and employed his influence in their behalf, to obtain 
for them justice and pardon from the sovereign. 

Henry II., on the rebellion of his son, sought the interposition of 
Alexander III., avowing himself a vassal of the Holy See : " Since 
God has raised you to the eminence of the pastoral office, that you 
might give the knowledge of salvation to His people, although I be 
absent in body, yet present in spirit, I prostrate myself at your 
knees, demanding salutary counsel. The kingdom of England is of 
your jurisdiction, and to you alone I am responsible, and am bound as to 
what regards the obligation of feudatory right. Let England see the 
power of the Roman Pontiff; and since he does not employ material arms, 
let him defend the patrimony of blessed Peter with the spiritual sword."* 
The Pope accordingly issued an excommunication against all who should 
disturb the king's peace. Clement IV. succeeded in bringing to an 
amicable issue a strife of long continuance between Bela, King of Hun- 
gary, and his son Stephen, and united them in lasting peace. 

It is plain that the pontifical interference, when thus invoked by 
princes or their subjects, was calculated to remedy grievances in a 
manner most consistent with the general interests. The monarch, how- 
ever powerful, could not hope to crush by force his subjects, when 
sustained by the moral influence of the Pontiff ; and a feeble prince was 
protected by the shield of religion, against the violence of a rampant 
nobility or a restless people. Between sovereigns accustomed to decide 
their disputes on the battle-field, his interposition, as the common father 
of princes, was calculated to prevent a recourse to arms. His judgment 
being regarded as the expression of right, gave a moral support to the 
just cause : it served. 

"To give us warrant from the hand of Heaven, 
And on our actions set the name of right 
With holy breath."! 

Leibnitz regarded this mediatorial ofiice of the Pope as one among the 
most beautiful evidences of Christian influence on society, and expressed 
the desire, which, however, he did not hope to see realized, that a peace 
tribunal were established anew at Rome, with the Pontiff as its president, 
that the controversies of princes and the internal dissensions of nations 



* Baron., an. 1173, p. 60. 



j King John. — Shakspeare. 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



289 



might, under the mild influence of religion, be decided without blood- 
shed. " Since we are allowed to indulge fancy, why/' says he, u should 
we not cherish an idea that would renew among us the golden age 

In order to judge rightly of these acts, it should be remembered, that 
the Christian nations of Europe, in consequence of their common faith, 
became almost insensibly a great confederacy, bound together by stronger 
ties than any conventional compact. " The nations belonging to the 
Roman communion appeared to be one great republic. "f The integrity 
of Christian faith was its fundamental law, the violation of which was 
punished with expulsion from the confederacy. The Pope was charged 
to watch over its observance, and in case of the apostasy of any inferior 
lord, to declare the forfeiture which he had incurred, and to proclaim 
that his territory might be seized by any Catholic potentate. The action 
of the Pontiff, in such case, was not an exercise of his primatial authority, 
farther than his sentence determined the guilt of heresy : it proceeded 
from a power attached to his office by general consent for the interests of 
the Christian commonwealth. The penalty was specially enacted in 
reference to the Manichean heresy, which subverted public morals, as 
well as faith. 

The fourth Council of Lateran, held in the year 1215, under Innocent 
III., decreed, that if a secular lord, after request made of him, and admo- 
nition given him by the Church, should neglect to clear his territory of 
this heretical filth, he should be excommunicated by the bishops of the 
province ; and in case he continued contumacious under excommunication 
during an entire year, the Pope should be informed of it, that he might 
declare the vassals thenceforward free from their allegiance, and leave the 
territory open to be occupied by Catholics, who might drive away the 
heretics, and hold it by an unquestionable title, without prejudice to the 
rights of the liege lord. The same was to be observed in regard to such 
as had no principal lords,J that is, lords paramount. It is clear that the 
body of the enactment regards inferior and dependent lords. The tenure 
of their fiefs was thus limited, with the general consent of the secular 
powers present in the Council, which contained the representatives of the 
Emperor of Constantinople, and of the Kings of France, England, Hun- 
gary, Jerusalem, Aragon, and of many other sovereigns. The ravages of 
the Manichees, which are described by the fathers, appeared to require 
the concerted efforts of all the civil powers to suppress them, so that 
neglect to do so was deemed treason against the Christian confederacy. 
On this account it was punished with the forfeiture of feudal rights : and 
accordingly, in the Council itself, Innocent deprived the Count of Tou- 
louse of his principality, and transferred it to Simon de Montfort, the 



* Lettre II., a M. Grimaret, op. t. v. p. 65. 
f Voltaire, Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. ii. ch. xlviii. 
J Can. iii., apud Labbe, cone, t. xi. par. i. p. 147. 
19 



290 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



leader of the crusade against the Albigensians. Honorius III. justified 
himself by this enactment with. Henry, King of England, for having 
called on Louis, King of France, to occupy the territory of the Count of 
Toulouse.* The enactment does not regard sovereigns, the clause which 
is attached to it being only designed to include allodialj proprietors, who 
were bound to no military service, or other feudal duty. It may be 
thought that the principle is equally applicable to sovereigns : but where 
penal laws are in question, it is not allowable to argue from parity of 
reason, and sovereigns are never understood to be embraced by general 
enactments, unless they be specially mentioned. The whole enactment 
is, indeed, founded on the principle that heresy — especially Manicheism — 
is a crime against Christian society, to be punished and extirpated by the 
civil authorities, which was undisputed in that age, when the violence 
and disorders of sectaries gave melancholy evidence of the anti-social 
character of their tenets. 

It is undeniable that the Pontiffs sometimes invited sovereigns to aid in 
executing their sentences against other sovereigns, whose territories they 
encouraged them to invade. Postponing to another opportunity to 
explain the grounds on which this was done, I wish, at present, merely to 
meet the objection as regards their pacific character. Whenever war is 
necessary to vindicate the oppressed, and put a stop to outrage, its justice 
must be the apology of him who lends it his sanction. It is for the 
interests of peace and of humanity that a powerful monarch should inter- 
pose for the protection of the defenceless, and awe, by a formidable dis- 
play of force, the tyrant who is deaf to paternal remonstrance. Of the 
Papal authority as exercised by the Gregories and Innocents, a recent 
writer says : "It bestowed order, civilization, and, as far as was possible 
in such fierce and warlike times, peace/' J 

In connection with the office of the Pontiffs as pacificators, we may 
mention the restraints which they imposed on military operations. It 
would have been vain to enjoin on the nobles of those ages to abstain 
altogether from the use of arms, since mutual injuries provoked resist- 
ance and retaliation, and tribunals of justice were not at hand. Each 
baron exercised the rights of sovereignty, as far as his own interests were 
at stake, and undertook the redress of wrongs by the sword. The utmost 
which could be successfully attempted, was to restrain men from violence 
at certain times, and especially on days consecrated to religious duties : 
on this account Cardinal Hugo, in a Council held at Gerona in Spain, in 
the year 1068, by the authority of Alexander II., confirmed " the truce 
of God/' as there observed, and extended it from the octave of Easter 
Sunday to the octave of Whitsuntide, requiring its observance during 
that period, as well as during Lent, under penalty of excommunication. 



* Vide Fleury, Hist. Eccl., 1. lxxix. $ xxviii. f See Blackstone, L ii. c. iv. 

X London Quarterly, for February, 1836. 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



291 



Urban II., likewise, in the Councils of Melfi and Clermont, confirmed, 
by his authority, the decrees of some bishops, who had enjoined a sus- 
pension of hostilities from Wednesday evening of each week until 
Monday morning, and during the whole of Advent and Lent. The 
wisdom of this ordinance is acknowledged by Mills, who observes : 
" The clergy did much toward accustoming mankind to prefer the 
authority of law to the power of the sword. At their instigation 
private wars ceased for certain periods, and on particular days, and the 
observance of the Truce of God was guarded by the terrors of excom- 
munication and anathema. Christianity could not immediately and 
directly change the face of the world ; but she mitigated the horrors of 
the times by infusing herself into warlike institutions."* 

In 1187, during the pontificate of Gregory VIII., which did not last 
quite two months, the Cardinals, in order to promote the Crusade which 
was then undertaken, agreed, with the assent of the Pope, to establish a 
general peace between all Christian princes for seven years, subjecting to 
excommunication all who should violate it. The assumption of this 
power was in accordance with the general principles and usages of the 
Middle Ages, and was certainly favorable to the interests of humanity. 

Hallam, although he regards the Papal interference as an usurpation, 
admits that the project of Gerohus, a writer who lived early in the 
twelfth century, to refer all disputes among princes to the Pope, was cal- 
culated to find favor with benevolent minds, sickened by the cupidity 
and oppression of princes. "No control but that of religion appeared 
sufficient to restrain the abuses of society; while its salutary influence 
had already been displayed both in the Truce of God, which put the first 
check on the custom of private war, and more recently in the protection 
afforded to Crusaders against all aggression during the continuance of 
their engagement. There were certainly some instances where the tem- 
poral supremacy of Innocent III., however usurped, may appear to have 
been exerted beneficially. He directs one of his legates to compel the 
observance of peace between the Kings of Castile and Portugal, if neces- 
sary, by excommunication and interdict. "f 

It may surprise the reader to learn that an improvement in the laws of 
war, which John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, as 
American commissioners, proposed to the Prussian minister, in the year 
1784, was anticipated, more than six hundred years, by Innocent IL, in 
the Council of Lateran. Using the civil influence with which he found 
himself invested, he decreed that "priests, monks, strangers, merchants, 
peasants, going or returning, or employed in labors of husbandry, and 
the animals with which they plough, and which carry the seeds to the 
field, should be secured from all molestation. "J The proposition of the 



* History of Crusades, ch. i. p. 22. f Middle Ages, ch. vii. 

X Cap. Innovamus IL, de Treuga et Pace. 



292 



PEACE TRIBUNAL. 



commissioners was u to improve the laws of war, by a mutual stipulation 
not to molest non-combatants, as cultivators of the earth, fishermen, 
merchants, and traders in unarmed ships, and artists and mechanics, 
inhabiting and working in open towns."* Another instance may be 
added, in which the humane and enlightened views of the Popes antici- 
pated and surpassed some of the modern improvements on the laws of 
war. Paschal II., in a Council held at Troyes, in 1107, decreed that in 
war houses should not be set on fire.f It is now deemed unlawful wan- 
tonly to destroy public buildings. Chancellor Kent truly observes, that 
" the history of Europe, during the early periods of modern history, 
abounds with interesting and strong cases, to show the authority of the 
Church over turbulent princes and fierce warriors, and the effect of that 
authority in meliorating manners, checking violence, and introducing a 
system of morals which inculcated peace, moderation, and justice."! 



* Kent's Comm., vol. i. p. 91. Note. f Chronic. Malleacense. 

\ Commentaries on American Law, by James Kent. Lecture 



CHAPTER IV. 



f a ton. 

§ 1. — ORIGIN OF THE POWER. 

Whoever is at all acquainted with the history of the Middle Ages, 
cannot be ignorant of the political influence which the bishops exercised, 
conjointly with the secular nobility. This arose from the religious 
feeling of the people, which disposed them to respect their judgment, 
rather than from the temporal possessions attached to the sees.* Be- 
sides, as Hallam avows, a the bishops acquired and retained a great part 
of their ascendency by a very respectable instrument of power, intel- 
lectual superiority/' - )* Their concurrence was sought in every change of 
rulers, whether the sceptre passed by election to the heir of a deceased 
monarch, or by some revolution, into the hands of a new dynasty. In 
the decline of the seventh century, on the resignation of King Waniba, 
the Spanish bishops assembled at the instance of his successor, Ervigius, 
who sought at their hands the ratification of his title : and on the depo- 
sition of Louis by his son Lothaire, a French Council lent its sanction to 
the measure. In 859, in the Council of Savonieres, Charles the Bald 
avowed his willingness to submit to the judgment of the bishops, and 
complained that he had been deposed without their sanction. They, 
in reality, were the chief nobles, who. chiefly constituted the public 
council and national legislature. The Pope especially possessed im- 
mense influence in civil affairs. His judgment sealed the deposition of 
Childeric, and the transfer of the sceptre from the Merovingian to the 
Carlovingian race. When Eadbert, a clergyman, regardless of his sacred 
engagements, was chosen by intrigue to occupy the vacant throne of Kent, 
in 796, Leo III., at the instance of Ethelheard, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, struck the ambitious aspirant with excommunication, for the viola- 
tion of his religious obligations, and threatened to exhort all the in- 
habitants of Britain to unite in punishing his disobedience, should he 
refuse to return to the clerical profession. J People and princes alike 
appealed to the Pope in their controversies, and sought redress at his 
hands. The Saxons complained to Alexander II. of Henry IV., King 
of Germany, whose oppression and licentiousness were intolerable. The 

* Middle Ages, ch. viii. p. 111. f lb. ch. vii. % Lingard, Hist. England, I. i. ch. iii. 

293 



294 



DEPOSING POWER. 



prince was accordingly summoned to answer at the tribunal of the Pon- 
tiff, whose death, however, interrupted the proceedings. Two centuries 
before, Nicholas I. threatened to interdict King Lothaire unless he dis- 
missed Waldrada : which menace was understood by the Bishop of Metz 
to involve the throne itself in danger. 

Although, from these facts, it is plain that St. Gregory YII. was not 
the first who claimed or exercised authority over princes, he appears to be 
the first who actually undertook to depose them. In the year 1074, he 
wrote to the French bishops, complaining of the crimes of Philip I., 
whom he designated, not a king, but a tyrant, and requiring of them to 
admonish him, and lay the kingdom under interdict ; adding a solemn 
threat, that if these measures failed, he would leave no means untried to 
free the nation from its unworthy ruler, as he could no longer suffer so 
illustrious a kingdom and its vast population to be ruined by the mis- 
conduct of one man. This presents to us a principle very popular in our 
days, that royalty is but a trust for the people, and that when the public 
interests are trampled under foot by the prince, he is a tyrant, unfit to 
hold the reins of government, and no longer entitled to the obedience of 
the people. Similar views had been delivered by Nicholas I. in the 
ninth century. To propagate this doctrine, leaving to every one to deter- 
mine for himself when it is that the ruler has forfeited his rights, would 
be to preach revolution and anarchy. The assumption, however, of the 
right of judgment between subjects and their sovereign, has been repre- 
sented as a daring usurpation. But as all the kingdoms of Europe had 
arisen under the protection of the Holy See, and all by the very pro- 
fession of Christianity were considered as acknowledging its parental 
guidance, which by express acts they declared in the most solemn manner, 
the Pope was expected to interpose in all great controversies, whether 
domestic or external. His interference was generally sought, even when 
he seemed to act unsolicited. 

In the Boman Council of the year 1075, excommunication was de- 
nounced against Philip, in case he should not yield to the admonitions of 
the apostolic legate despatched for his correction. The zeal of the Pon- 
tiff was soon enkindled against a more powerful prince, Henry IV., King 
of Germany, and emperor elect. In the lifetime of his father, Henry 
III., he had been chosen, with the assent of the German nobles, to suc- 
ceed to the imperial throne, on the usual condition that he should govern 
justly.* The violation of this pledge had, as we have seen above, pro- 
voked the complaints of the Saxons, who subsequently revolted; and 
having, in an assembly at Gersteng, declared him unworthy to reign, on 
the accession of Gregory they most urgently besought him to come to 
their relief, f while Henry at the same time implored his authority against 

* " Si rector justus futurus esset." Herman, contract., ad. an. 1057. 
f " Quibus ut, vel per se, vel pur nuntium, genti pene perditas consolator esset, sup- 
pliciter oraverunt." Bruno, de bello Saxonico, apud script, rerum Germ., t. i. p. 133. , 



DEPOSING POWER. 



295 



the rebels. "When the Saxons revolted/' Saint-Priest observes, "the 
Emperor Henry IV., at the foot of the throne of Gregory VII., accused 
them of sedition and sacrilege. Thus the King of Germany made the 
Pope judge of his German subjects."* Gregory, accordingly, expostu- 
lated -with the insurgents, calling on them to desist from violence, and 
despatched legates to them and to the king, with a view to bring their 
disputes to a peaceful termination. In the mean time, Henry threatened 
with death all who had appealed to the tribunal of the Pontiff. It was 
then that the measure of his iniquities seemed to overflow, so that Gre- 
gory took upon himself to forbid him to govern the kingdom of the Ger- 
mans and of Italy, and absolved all Christians from the oath by which 
they had bound themselves to obey him as king. 

This extraordinary act naturally leads us to inquire by what authority 
it was attempted. In a letter to the German bishops, nobles, and people, 
Gregory states that " Henry was guilty of crimes so enormous, as to de- 
serve not only to be excommunicated, but, according to all divine and 
human laws, to be deprived of the royal dignity/' The various histori- 
cal documents specify those crimes, namely, utter disregard of the public 
interests, the cruel oppression of his subjects, the dishonor of the wives 
and daughters of the princes, and the butchery of many innocent persons. 
In the national Council held by the German princes, in 1076, they com- 
plained that Henry had wantonly shed the blood of his subjects, and laid 
an intolerable yoke on the necks of a free people. He had, likewise, 
committed great crimes against religion, by the sale of bishoprics, which 
he bestowed on unworthy men, and last of all, by the sacrilegious attempt 
to depose the sovereign Pontiff. Both classes of crimes, those against 
society and religion, concurred to provoke his condemnation, because, as 
king, he had bound himself to protect the Church, and maintain her 
rights inviolate : but the last act, in that state of society, was justly 
deemed treason against the head of the Christian commonwealth. Chris- 
tianity was the basis of society and its supreme law, and the Pontiff was 
regarded as its guardian and expounder. 

It was the firm persuasion of the German princes that Henry, by his 
violation of " the compact which, at his coronation, he had sworn to ob- 
serve, had forfeited his title to the throne. "Freemen," says a writer 
almost contemporary, "put over themselves Henry as king, on condition 
that he should judge his constituents with justice, and govern them with 
royal care : which compact he has constantly broken and disregarded. 
Therefore, even without the judgment of the Apostolic See, the princes 
could justly refuse to acknowledge him any longer as king, since he has 
not fulfilled the pledge which he gave at his election j the violation of 
which brings with it the forfeiture of kingly power."f They sought, 

* Histoire de la Royaute, par Saint-Priest, L s. vol. ii. p. 549. 

f " Liberi homines Henrieum eo pacto sibi praeposuerunt in regern, at electores suos 
juste judicare, et regali providentia gubernare satageret, quod pactum ille postea pra?- 



296 



DEPOSING POWER. 



nevertheless, the sanction of the Pope, whose influence on the public 
conscience was at that period unbounded. 

The sentence of Gregory was professedly grounded on the power of 
binding and loosing which Peter received from Christ: but it presup- 
posed the radical annulling of the oath of allegiance, by the failure of 
Henry in the fulfilment of the correlative obligations j so that, although 
bearing the form of a sentence, it was in reality an authoritative declara- 
tion that the oath had ceased to bind. In no circumstance did he assert, 
or insinuate, that he could loose the bond at will; but he uniformly 
relied on the fact that the king had violated his own oath, and thus vir- 
tually released the people from their duty to him. Voltaire has happily 
expressed the relations which then subsisted between the monarch and 
the people : 

" Before this sacred shrine he swore 
Justly to wield the power he bore ; 
And such the tie that binds in one 
The nation's heart and monarch's throne : 
The day that breaks his oath, annuls our own."* 

The feudal principles which prevailed in the Middle Ages, led men to 
regard the relations of subjects to the sovereign as depending on his 
fidelity in discharging the duties which he had assumed. The barons 
owed him no unqualified allegiance, and their liege men felt more strictly 
bound to their immediate lord than to the king or emperor, to whom they 
stood in no direct relation. Hallam observes : " The relation established 
between a lord and his vassal, by the feudal tenure, far from containing 
principles of any servile and implicit obedience, permitted the compact 
to be dissolved in case of its violation by either party. This extended as 
much to the sovereign as to inferior lords. "f 

The judgment of the Pope was awaited, lest the relations of the people 
to their rulers should be capriciously dissolved. The Saxons had im- 
plored it most earnestly, and Gregory, after much hesitation, and many 
efforts for the correction of Henry, issued at length the awful sentence. 
He did not proceed in this matter from the impulse of his own feelings, 
but with the advice and at the earnest solicitation of the Council which 
he assembled to take it into consideration. The prince himself, when he 
sought and obtained absolution from the censure, accepted with apparent 

varicari et contenmere non cessavit, &o. Ergo et absque sedis apostolicae judicio, prin- 
cipes eum pro rege merito refutare possent, cum pactum adimplere contempserit, quod iis 
pro electione sua promiserat, quo non adimpleto nec rex esse poterat." Vita Gregorii 
VII., in Muratori Script, rerum Italic, t. iii., p. 342. 

* A cet autel auguste 

il jura d' etre juste : 

De son peuple et de lui tel etait le lien ; 

H nous rend nos sermens, lorsqu' il trahit le sien. 

Voltaire, Brutus, Acte I., Scene 2. 

f Middle Ages, ch. viii. p. 111. 



DEPOSING POWER. 



297 



readiness the condition of awaiting the issue of a full investigation, to be 
made in the presence of the German princes, at a time and place to be 
appointed by the Pontiff, promising, in the mean time, to lay aside the 
regal robes, and abstain from all interference in the government of the 
empire. Should he fail in any of these engagements, or shrink from the 
trial, he consented to be held as guilty, and agreed that the princes 
should be deemed free from every obligation contracted by their oath of 
allegiance, so that they might without further delay proceed by election 
to fill the vacant throne.* 

Without pretending that the cases are in all respects parallel, I beg to 
refer to the Declaration of Independence, in which, after the enumeration 
of grievances endured by the American colonies from the King of Great 
Britain, this remarkable sentence occurs : " We, therefore, the represen- 
tatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, 
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our in- 
tentions, do, in the name and by authority of the good people of these 
colonies, solemnly publish and declare that these united colonies are, and 
of right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are ab- 
solved FROM ALL ALLEGIANCE TO THE BRITISH CROWN j and that all 

political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and 
ought to be, totally dissolved." Although Congress did not assume the 
power of the keys, or claim any control over conscience, it certainly set 
aside, as far as in it lay, the oath of allegiance, on the ground that the 
correlative duty of protection had not been fulfilled by the British crown. 
So far, this is precisely a case in point to that for which odium has been 
heaped on the memory of the holy Pontiff. His act, if in the main just, 
because declaratory of right, does not cease to be such from the circum- 
stance that he brings to its performance all the spiritual authority of his 
office, invoking the prince of the apostles to ratify what he undertakes, in 
virtue of that power of binding and loosing, which he received from 
Christ. He did not rely on this alone : he did not interfere unsolicited : 
but his authority having been implored by both parties alternately, he 
issued a sentence, giving it all the force which his social and ecclesiastical 
position enabled him to impart to it : and yet suspending its final effect 
for a year, in order to give the tyrant an opportunity of avoiding the 
penalty by a change of conduct. 

In an assembly of the German princes held at Triers, most of them 
manifested an anxiety to avail themselves of the opportunity which was 
thus presented of deposing Henry; but, in the end, they sent an em- 
bassy to him, proposing to submit their grievances anew to the judgment 
of the Pope, in an assembly of all the nobles, to be held at Augsburg; 
to which proposition the affrighted prince assented. " This was," as Vol- 
taire observes, " a recognition of the Pontiff as the natural judge of the 



* See Lambert. Schnafnaburg, cited by Pagi Brev. Pont. Bom. 



298 



DEPOSING POWER. 



emperor and empire. It was the triumph of Gregory VII. and of the 
Papacy. Henry IV., reduced to these extremities, increased still more 
his triumph."* 

By a law of the empire, as well as by general usage, the loss of civil 
rights was attached to the sentence of excommunication, in case cf con- 
tumacy, manifested by neglect to obtain absolution during an entire year. 
The sentence of Gregory was but the application of this general law to 
the case of a ruler, and was not designed to take full effect unless after 
the lapse of that space of time. Accordingly, as the end of the year 
drew nigh, Henry manifested extreme anxiety to be released from the 
censure, and for that purpose he crossed the Alps in the depth of winter, 
to meet the Pontiff, who had stopped at Canosa on his journey to Augs- 
burg. In the garb of a penitent, he presented himself at the gate of the 
fortress ; but obtained admittance only after three days, Gregory being 
distrustful of the sincerity of his professions. This apparent sternness 
was fully justified by the prompt relapse of Henry into his usual excesses. 
"When taking the communion, Gregory, holding in his hand the body of 
our Lord, appealed to Him as witness of his innocence of the crimes 
which Henry had laid to his charge, and then challenged him to do like- 
wise : " Do, my son, what you have seen me do. The German princes 
daily stun my ears with charges against you, imputing to you many enor- 
mous crimes, for which they think you deserve not only to be deprived of 
the government, but to be removed from the communion of the Church, 
and from all civil society to the end of life : they earnestly demand that 
a day and place be appointed for the examination of the charges which 
they bring against you." Consciousness of guilt withheld the monarch 
from making the appeal. 

After the relapse of Henry, and the election of Rudolph by the Ger- 
man princes, contrary to the wishes of Gregory, who still cherished the 
hope of his amendment, he made several ineffectual efforts to terminate 
the contest, and resisted the importunate solicitations of the ambassadors 
of Rudolph, and of others, who urged him to strike the prevaricating 
prince with the apostolic sword. At length, in the year 1080, he drew 
it from the scabbard, in a Roman Council, " subjected him to excom- 
munication, binding him with the chains of anathema, forbidding him 
anew, on the part of Almighty God and of the apostles Peter and Paul, 
to take on himself the kingdom of the Germans and of Italy." By his 
solemn sentence, the Pontiff took from Henry all power and dignity, for- 
bidding any Christian to obey him, and absolving from their oath all who 
had sworn allegiance to him. On the same occasion, he recognised as 
king, Rudolph, whom the Germans had chosen to occupy the throne, and, 
with the ardor of prophetic zeal, he besought the apostles " to show by 
the event that they could take away and grant, according to the respective 



* Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, ch.'xlii., Henri IV. et Gregoire VII. 



DEPOSING POWER. 



299 



deserts of each one, empires, kingdoms, principalities, and all varieties 
of earthly dominion." The apostles were invoked, that, by their powerful 
influence at the eternal throne, they might obtain such a manifest inter- 
position of Providence, as would show to the world that Christ had con- 
firmed the just sentence of His earthly vicegerent. 

The immediate issue of the contest did not give to this appeal the 
character of prophecy, for Rudolph, at the moment of victory, perished 
on the field of battle. An anti-pope created by the conqueror, in the per- 
son of Guibert, Bishop of Ravenna, and enthroned in St. Peter's, usurped 
the tiara during the reign of three lawful Pontiffs ; and Henry, for twenty 
years after the death of Gregory, wore the insignia and claimed the title 
of emperor, which at length he abandoned, after his own son had risen in 
revolt against him. Having closed his career under the ban of the 
Church, his corpse was denied Christian sepulture. Gregory, to escape 
the power of his persecutor and of his rival, retired into the Castle 
of Sant' Angelo, from which he came forth under the protection of 
Robert Guiscard, the Norman duke, and passing to Salerno, closed his 
career of suffering, calm and resigned. " I regret not," said he, " my 
sufferings, being sustained by the consciousness of having loved virtue 
and hated iniquity."* Henry V. imitated his father for a time by his 
encroachments on ecclesiastical authority, but in the end made a satisfac- 
tory arrangement with Pope Calixtus II. " At his death, in 1125, the 
male line of the Franconian emperors was at an end/'f It is thus that 
God often cuts off the race of sovereigns who abuse their authority to 
the prejudice of the Church. 

I 2.— SUBSEQUENT INSTANCES. 

Notwithstanding the sufferings of St. Gregory in his struggles against 
the oppressor, his example was followed by his successors. In the year 
1168, Alexander III. excommunicated Frederick Barbarossa, and released 
his subjects from their allegiance. The sacking of Milan, one of the 
most horrible events recorded in history, provoked, and, even in the judg- 
ment of Voltaire, justified this exercise of pontifical authority.]; The 
Italian cities, encouraged by the Papal sentence, succeeded in shaking off 
the imperial yoke, and, through gratitude to the magnanimous Pontiff, 
built a city, which they called from his name, Alexandria. "Milan, 
which was rebuilt, Pavia, Brescia, and so many other cities, thanked the 
Pope for having restored to them the precious liberty for which they 
fought; and the holy father, penetrated with a pure joy, cried out : 'God 
has been pleased to cause an old priest to triumph, without combating, 



* The Dictatus, which bears the name of Gregory, is proved to be a forgery. See 
Pagi, ad an. 1077. 

f Hallam's Middle Ages, ch. v. % Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, 1. ii. ch. xlir. 



300 



DEPOSING POWER. 



over a powerful and terrific emperor.' "* Shall we hesitate to applaud 
the triumph of liberty and natural right over a cruel despot? The 
sentence of the Pontiff was plainly a declaration of the rights of 
the Italian cities, for whose relief it was specially issued. Frederick 
himself bent his proud neck to the Vicar of Christ, "j*, and, to repair his 
misdeeds, with heroic courage led the army of the cross to the plains of 
Palestine. 

A most solemn sentence of deposition was pronounced in the year 
1245, in the Council of Lyons, by Innocent IV. against Frederick II. 
There were present in that venerable assembly the Patriarchs of Con- 
stantinople, Antioch, and Aquileja, with archbishops and bishops to the 
number of one hundred and forty, and the Emperor of Constantinople, 
with several representatives of the civil powers. It is unnecessary to 
enumerate the measures previously adopted against Frederick, and the 
long-continued career of crime by which he provoked the censures of the 
Church. His advocate, Thaddeus, in vain attempted to ward off the 
blow. Innocent, after preliminary proceedings, in the third session thus 
pronounced judgment: "The aforesaid prince having rendered himself 
unworthy of the empire and kingdom, and of all honor and dignity, and 
being cast off by God on account of his iniquities, that he should not 
reign, or command ; and being bound fast by his own sins, and cast away, 
we show and denounce him as deprived by the Lord of all honor and dig- 
nity ; and, nevertheless, by our sentence we deprive him, and absolve 
forever from their oath all who are bound to him by the oath of alle- 
giance." 

In this instance, at least, the sentence was effectual, which shows how 
general was the conviction that it emanated from a competent authority, 
and rested on just grounds. "After his deposition by the Council of 
Lyons," says Hallam, " the affairs of Frederick II. went rapidly into de- 
cay. With every allowance for the enmity of the Lombards, and the 
jealousy of Germany, it must be confessed that the proscription of In- 
nocent IV. and Alexander IV. was the main cause of the ruin of his 
family."! 

Although the solemnity of this sentence does not give it the character 
of a doctrinal definition, yet it demands our particular consideration. 
I am not of those who rely on the circumstance that it is said to have 
been passed in the presence of the Council, without any intimation that 
the fathers approved of it; for they certainly concurred in the awful 
ceremonial of excommunication, and not having protested against the 



* Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, 1. ii. ch. xliv. 

f The fable of Alexander putting his foot on the neck of the penitent emperor, is ex- 
ploded. Voltaire disbelieves, likewise, the statement of Hoveden, that Celestine III., at 
the age of eighty-four, while crowning Henry VI., son of Frederick, kicked the crown 
off his head : " Ce fait n' est pas vraisemblable." Voltaire, ibid. 

X Middle Ages, ch. vii. 



DEPOSING POWER. 



301 



deposition, they must be considered as assenting to it, especially as the 
Pontiff declares that it was decreed after diligent deliberation with them. 
The obvious reason why it is ascribed to Innocent, rather than to the 
Council, is because it was believed to be his prerogative to judge the em- 
peror, whom he had crowned. On this rite great stress is laid by 
Nicholas I., who speaks of the imperial dominions as passing by heredi- 
tary right, confirmed by the authority of the Holy See, and by the act 
of the Pontiff, who placed the crown on his head.* I am not disposed 
to admit that the act of Innocent was an exercise of usurped power, an 
unwarrantable encroachment of the ecclesiastical on the civil authority ; 
neither do I contend that it proceeded from the divine commission given 
to Peter. In the state of society which then existed, which, as we have 
seen, was in the main a Christian confederacy, having the Gospel as its 
fundamental law, the head of the Church being placed in such intimate 
relations with the emperor, could declare that he had forfeited his rights 
to the throne, by violating the compact in virtue of which he reigned. 
It is true that he does not speak of this compact, or point to any human 
source of the power which he exercised, but neither does he declare its 
divine origin : and by enumerating the crimes of the tyrant, he plainly 
intimates that these deprived him, in the sight of God, of all title to the 
throne. The right to depose an unworthy sovereign was not seriously 
questioned in that age, so that its exercise met with the general concur- 
rence of all who were not under his immediate influence, and needed no 
proof to recommend it. In reference to this sentence, Michaud observes : 
" We must acknowledge that the pretensions of the Popes in this respect 
were favored by the contemporary opinions/'-f 

The provision made in the Constitution of the United States for the 
trial of the president on impeachment, bears some resemblance to the 
mode of proceeding against the emperor, at that time, when the Christian 
nations of Europe virtually formed a federal commonwealth. " The 
Church," as Chancellor Kent remarks, " had its Councils, or convocations 
of the clergy, which formed the nations professing Christianity into a 
connection resembling a federal alliance, and those Councils sometimes 
settled the titles and claims of princes, and regulated the temporal affairs 
of the Christian powers. "J In the Middle Ages, the emperor stood in 
the relation of the highest executive in all that regarded civil and co- 
ercive administration. We may justly consider a General Council as the 
senate of the Christian confederacy, the Pope as its chief-justice. Ac- 
cording to the Constitution, the president is to be tried by the senate, 
under the presidency of the chief-justice. There may appear to be 
a striking contrast between the two cases in this respect, that two-thirds 
of the senate must concur to the condemnation of the president, while 



* Ep. xxvi. f Histoire des Croisades, 1. xiv. p. 163. 

| Commentaries on American Law, by James Kent, lect. i. p. 9, 10. 



302 



DEPOSING POWER 



the judicial power of the Pontiff is independent and unrestricted ; but, in 
fact, he never proceeded in a case of this importance unless with the ad- 
vice and assent either of a General Council, as in the present instance, 
or of a numerous assembly of bishops, like the Roman Synods under 
Gregory VII. The chief-justice is empowered to remove the president 
from office, when found guilty, but he cannot affect life or limb by his 
sentence. The Pontiff, in like manner, in deposing the delinquent 
emperor, left his person free and inviolate. 



£ 3.— NEVER FORMALLY DEFINED. 

It is certain that St. Gregory VII. issued no solemn definition of his 
right to depose sovereigns. In asserting it he relied on the power of 
binding and loosing, which Peter received from our Lord : but he did not 
formally define that it was included in this commission. He had spe- 
cially in view the religious obligation of the oath, by which the natural 
duty of allegiance to the established authority is sanctioned, and he 
claimed the power of absolving from it only in circumstances where the 
ground of the obligation was withdrawn. All lawful engagements are 
obligatory independently of the authority of the Church, which enforces 
them with a general sanction, and claims no power to interfere with the 
rights of others. Obligations originally legitimate may cease by reason 
of the breach of conditions on which they were based ; in which case the 
injured party may be considered free, without any ecclesiastical interven- 
tion : but if they were sanctioned by oath, respect for this religious bond 
requires the act of a prelate of the Church to loose the tie, in virtue of 
the power received from Christ. "What is true of the relative obligations 
of individuals, was applied in the Middle Ages to the duties of sovereigns 
and subjects, both classes professing submission to the same ecclesiastical 
authority. "While, therefore, no power was claimed to interfere with these 
duties, the Popes felt authorized to loose the religious bond by which 
they were sanctioned, when, by the violation of the correlative conditions, 
the obligation had ceased. This was the substance of the action of 
Gregory. 

Boniface VIII. is considered as having most formally asserted the 
right to depose sovereigns. Philip the Pair, Bang of France, was 
guilty of debasing the public coin, to the great injury of his subjects, 
and of other acts of injustice, besides the violation of ecclesiastical im- 
munities. The Pope admonished him with the authority of a father, ap- 
plying to himself the words of the Prophet Jeremias, which Honorius 
III. had used on a similar occasion : " God has placed us over kings 
and kingdoms, to root up, pull down, waste, destroy, build up, and plant 
in His name and by His doctrine, "Wherefore, imagine not that you 
have no superior, and that you are not subject to the head of the 



DEPOSING POWER. 



303 



Church/'* As the prophet certainly had no secular power, Boniface 
cannot be thought to have claimed it, merely because he used the words 
which God addressed to Jeremias, and which meant only reproof, exhorta- 
tion, and correction. The Pope removes all ambiguity, by adding this quali- 
fication, " in His name and by His doctrine/' He expressly disavowed, 
through the cardinals, all claims to temporal domination :f but he asserted 
his right to judge of the morality of the acts of the king, which, ratione 
peccati, fell under his cognizance. As these were flagrantly criminal, he 
laid the kingdom of France under interdict, in the hope of striking 
terror into the delinquent monarch. The famous Bull, Unam Sanctam, 
published by Boniface, affirms that the temporal power is of its nature 
subordinate to the ecclesiastical, as earthly are to heavenly things; and 
defines the necessity which is incumbent on rulers, as well as their sub- 
jects, of admitting the authority of the chief bishop: "We declare to 
every human creature,J we affirm, define and pronounce, that it is 
altogether necessary for salvation, to be subject to the Roman Pontiff." 
Beyond this the definition does not go, so that no more is taught, as of 
faith, than what all Catholics hold, namely, that subjection to the Pope 
in matters of salvation is a necessary duty. The terms in which it is 
affirmed are not stronger than those employed by St. J erome, when ad- 
dressing Damasus. The allegorical reasoning contained in the Bull con- 
cerning the two swords — the spiritual sword wielded by the Pontiff, the 
temporal sword by the prince, but at the bidding of the Pontiff — is taken 
from St. Bernard,§ who means no more than that princes should use their 
power justly, and protect the ministers of religion in the exercise of their 
sacred functions. The power of deposing sovereigns is not at all asserted, 
much less is it defined. 

The superiority of the pontifical or sacerdotal power to that of princes 
or emperors, which is affirmed in this and various other documents, is to 
be understood of moral excellence, not of temporal relation. Justice and 
right are superior to brute force — the divine law is above all human au- 
thority : and the Priest or Pontiff, from whose lips the law is sought, is, 
in this respect, above the highest earthly potentate. It may be said that 
the Pontiffs did not always appear in the character of pacificators, since 
they sometimes urged princes to make war on those who had fallen under 
the censures of the Church, and to seize their territories. Arnold, in 
reviewing the history of the strifes between the Popes and emperors, 



* Ausculta, Fili. The Bull begins with these words, 
f Fleury, Hist, de l'Eglise, 1. xc. $ 16. 

J Omni humanae creature. Allusion is made to the commission to preach the gospel 
to every creature. In some manuscripts it reads : omnem humanam creaturam ; which 
would imply that every one should be subject to the Pontiff — kings, as well as their 
subjects. This is strictly true of all members of the Church, in all that regards sal- 
vation. 

§ De consideratione, 1. iv. 



304 



DEPOSING POWER. 



perceived clearly that it was, originally at least, a struggle for principle ; 
and although he was not disposed to favor the Papal claims, he was forced 
by his convictions to acknowledge the justice of the cause : " The prin- 
ciple in itself was this : whether the Papal or the imperial, in other 
words, the sacerdotal or the imperial power was to he accounted the 
greater. Now conceive the Papal power to be the representative of what 
is moral and spiritual, and the imperial power to represent only what is 
external and physical j conceive the first to express the ideas of respon- 
sibility to God and paternal care and guidance, while the other was the 
mere imbodying of selfish might, like the old Greek tyrannies, and who 
can do other than wish success to the Papal cause ? Who can help 
being, with all his heart, a Guelf? But in the early part of the 
struggle, this was, to a great extent, the state of it : the Pope stood in 
the place of the Church, the emperor was a merely worldly despot, cor- 
rupt and arbitrary."* 

The third canon of the fourth Council of Lateran, which we have 
already examined, has been often alleged as sanctioning the deposition 
of sovereigns. Even if this were true, it does not bear the character of 
a doctrinal definition. It is an enactment, which, by the consent of the 
secular powers represented in the Council, might have embraced even 
sovereigns ; but there is no proof that it actually embraces them. Yet it 
cannot be doubted that by a general law, practically recognised by all 
Christian nations at that time, forfeiture of royal power was incurred by 
apostasy from the faith, this being admitted even by Henry IV., who 
contended that in no other contingency was he liable to deposition. It 
was, however, a principle of action, but not a defined dogma. Even 
Frederick II. acknowledged that if he were guilty of the crimes laid to 
his - charge, especially of heresy, he would deserve deposition ; and the 
advisers of St. Louis agreed, that in case of his guilt and conviction, he 
should not be supported by the French monarch. f At present, the 
principle is reversed, since the English crown would be forfeited by the 
profession of the Catholic faith. 

I L— DEPOSITION OF ELIZABETH. 

Among the latest attempts to exercise the deposing power, were the 
excommunication and sentence of deposition fulminated by St. Pius V., 
and renewed by Sixtus V., against Elizabeth of England. The grounds 
of tins sentence were her illegitimacy, the declaration of which stood un- 
repealed on the statute-book of England,^ her profession of heresy 



* Introductory Lectures on Modern History, by Thomas Arnold, lect. t. p. 22S 
American edition. 

t See Eleury, diss, v., in Hist. Eccl. 

% See History of England, by Dr. Lingard, vol. vii. ch. iv. 



DEPOSING POWER. 



305 



which, by the ancient fundamental law of England, as in other Christian 
countries, induced the forfeiture of regal power,* her crimes against re- 
ligion, and especially her persecution of her Catholic subjects. The 
special object, however, of the Bull of Pius, was to rescue the Queen of 
Scots from impending death : a circumstance which does honor to his 
humanity. " The Pontiff," says Dr. Lingard, who is no advocate of the 
measure, " considered himself bound to seek the deliverance of the cap- 
tive princess; he represented to the Kings of France and Spain that 
honor, and interest, and religion, called on them to rescue Mary from im- 
prisonment and death; and the moment that he knew that Elizabeth had 
committed her cause to the commissioners at York and Westminster, he 
ordered the auditor Riario to commence proceedings against the English 
queen in the Papal court/ 'f After the Bull had been prepared, the 
Pontiff delayed affixing to it his signature, until he received the intelli- 
gence that eight hundred individuals had perished on the scaffold, in 
punishment of an unsuccessful insurrection. The news of this wholesale 
butchery fixed his determination. To all these considerations was added, 
in the renewal of the sentence by Sixtus, the barbarous murder of the 
Queen of Scots, under color of legal process. Philip II., of Spain, pre- 
pared to give effect to the Papal decree, by a formidable fleet, the Ar- 
mada, which, by a mysterious act of Providence, became the sport of the 
winds, leaving the bold daughter of Anne Boleyn to pursue securely her 
career. Yet it is remarkable, that although Henry left three children, 
each of whom successively occupied the throne, sterility marked them all, 
and the sceptre passed from the grasp of the haughtiest woman of the 
Tudor race to the son of Mary Stuart. Sir Henry Spelman remarks : 
" They all successively sway his sceptre, and all die childless, and his 
family is extinct ; and, like Herostratus, his name not mentioned but 
with his crimes. 

The Catholics of England were foremost in demonstrations of loyalty 
to Elizabeth, at the time of the threatened invasion, feeling themselves 
bound to recognise her as their queen, because she was so acknowledged 
by the nation at large. In the sentence of deposition, St. Pius followed 
the precedents of holy and eminent Pontiffs, and relied on grounds which 
in themselves were not trivial : but the temporal supremacy of Rome 
had passed away, and the strength of Catholic faith was to be manifested 
in the patient endurance of persecution, over which it was finally to 
triumph. 

* Leges Eduardi regis, art. xvii., alias xv., apud Wilkins, Leges Anglo-Saxonicse, 
p. 200. Spelman, concilia, &c. Londini, 1639. 

t History of England, vol. viii. ch. i. % De non temerandis ecclesiis. Preface. 



20 



306 



DEPOSING POWER. 



§ 5.— DISCLAIMERS. 

The deposing power continued for a long time to be a subject of bitter 
controversy, the English government requiring the abjuration of the 
opinion in terms that condemned it as impious and heretical; and Rome 
being slow to sanction any formulary that implied censure on the acts of 
holy Pontiffs, or even to relinquish a power which she had once effectually 
wielded for the interests of humanity and religion. Louis XIV. induced 
the French clergy, in the assembly of 1682, to deny it formally, at a 
time when there was no disposition on the part of the Pope to exercise it. 
At length the excitement of controversy passed away : the oath abjuring 
the opinion, without any offensive censure, was generally taken by the 
Catholics of the British empire, without blame from the Holy See : the 
opinion was disclaimed by many Catholic universities, and Pius VI., 
through Cardinal Antonelli, prefect of the Propaganda, answering the 
Irish bishops, made the following important declaration : " The See of 
Rome never taught that faith is not to be kept with the heterodox : — 
that an oath to kings separated from the Catholic communion can be 
violated : — that it is lawful for the Bishop of Rome to invade their tem- 
poral rights and dominions. We, too, consider an attempt or design 
against the lives of kings and princes, even under the pretext of religion, 
as a horrid and detestable crime." 

When Napoleon despoiled Pius VII. of his temporal principality, the 
Pontiff hurled against him the thunders of the Church, without putting 
forth his hand to remove the imperial crown from his head. The haughty 
emperor boasted that the arms had not fallen from the hands of his sol- 
diers, in consequence of the excommunication, as if it was but a vain 
attempt to stop him in his victorious career : but lo ! soon afterward, in 
the Russian campaign, the frozen troops let fall their arms, by what Dr. Ar- 
nold designates "a direct and manifest interposition of God."* The con- 
queror, who during so long a time had sported with crowns as with toys, 
soon fell from his eminence, and became a prisoner and an exile. 

The deposing power was essentially grounded on the principle, that the 
people are the immediate source of civil government, which is established 
for their benefit, with liability to forfeiture if abused.f Lest anarchy 
should arise, through the intrigues of demagogues, the delicate point of 
declaring when forfeiture was incurred, was reserved, in Catholic nations, 
to the judgment of the Pontiff. Charles Butler, an English jurist, de- 
cidedly opposed to the power, justly observes, that " the deposing doc- 
trine of Persons and Mariana bears a nearer affinity to the whiggish 
doctrine of resistance than is generally supposed. The whigs maintain 



* Lecture iii. p. 161. 

f See Bianchi, Delia indixetta dipendenza della potesta temporale, 1. i. § 1. 



DEPOSING POWER. 



307 



that the people, where there is an extreme abuse of power, — of which 
abuse the people themselves are to be the judges, — may dethrone the 
offending monarch. The good fathers assigned the same power to the 
people, in the same extreme case, but contended that, if there were any 
doubts of the existence of the extremity, the Pope should be the judge. 
Of the two systems, when all Christendom was Catholic, was not the last, 
speaking comparatively, the least objectionable ?"* He further observes, 
that " it was not found to be in practice quite so mischievous as is 
generally described. It had even this advantage, that, on several occa- 
sions, during the boisterous governments of the feudal princes, it often 
proved a useful restraint, in the absence of every other, both on the 
king and the great nobility, and protected the lower ranks of society from 
their violence and oppression. "f It was, in fact, as a recent Italian 
writer observes, 11 a spiritual tribuneship, which effectually pleaded for 
the people when sovereigns went beyond the just limits of authority."! 
Our own Brownson, even before he had' set his foot on the threshold of 
the Church, eloquently remarked : " Wrong, wrong have they been, who 
have complained that kings and emperors were subjected to the spiritual 
head of Christendom. It was well for man, that there was a power over 
the brutal tyrants called emperors, kings, and barons, who rode rough- 
shod over the humble peasant and artisan — well that there was a power, 
even on earth, that could touch their cold and atheistical hearts, and 
make them tremble as the veriest slave/' . . . " It is to the existence 
and exercise of that power, that the people owe their existence, and 
the doctrine of man's equality to man, its progress. "§ 



* Historical Memoirs of the English Catholics, v. iii. $ 4. 

f Ibidem, 1. xxv. 7. J Audisio, Educazione del clero. Turino, 1844. 

§ Boston Quarterly Review, January, 1842, p. 13. 



CHAPTER V. 



Several acts of the Popes in regard to temporal sovereigns may be 
fairly regarded as implying no more than a religious sanction of what was 
in itself just and lawful. The judgment pronounced by Zacharias, at 
the solicitation of the Frank nobles, may be viewed in this light. 
Pepin, Mayor of the Palace, governed the Franks in the name of Chil- 
deric III., who altogether neglected the duties of a sovereign, which he 
was naturally disqualified from performing. The nobles having applied 
to Pope Zacharias to sanction the transfer of the crown and title to the 
actual governor, obtained his approval, whereby the Merovingian race was 
set aside, to make room for the Carlovingian dynasty. This decision was, 
in reality, but an authoritative declaration of the right of a nation, 
through its leaders, to choose for ruler a man capable of protecting the 
public interests. That the inert heir of royalty — magni nominis umbra 
— may be displaced, to make room for an active and capable ruler, when 
the public safety is in jeopardy, no supporter of the received theories of 
civil polity will question. The nobles invoked the authority of the Pon- 
tiff, in order that all might know that justice and the common good were 
solely had in view, and that no occasion might be furnished for tumult or 
disorder. It was an easy means of t revolution, without shedding human 
blood. The conscience of the people at large was interested, lest they 
should appear to resist the divine ordinance, and purchase to themselves 
damnation, The father and judge of Christians was consulted, who 
deemed the reasons of the change just and sufficient. Whatever influence 
in civil matters was thus given him, was the consequence of a free act of 
those who sought his counsel, or implored his judgment. He decided 
with authority a case of conscience of the highest importance, with evi- 
dent advantage to the nation. Hallam justly observes : "The circumstances 
under which the crown was transferred from the race of Clovis are con- 
nected with one of the most important revolutions in the history of 
Europe. " A sanguinary struggle was prevented, and the impartial judg- 
ment of one removed from local influences, which might bias the mind, 
was received with general acquiescence. " An answer," says Gibbon, 
" so agreeable to their wishes, was accepted by the Franks as the opinion 

308 



PAPAL SANCTION. 



309 



of a casuist, the sentence of a judge, or the oracle of a prophet."* 
Zacharias decided, not as a mere casuist, emitting an opinion, nor yet as a 
prophet inspired of God, but as a judge, determining with authority the 
extent of a moral obligation. Guizot remarks : " Never was a revolution 
accomplished with less effort and noise : Pepin possessed the power: the 
fact was changed into right : no resistance was made : no reclamation 
was deemed sufficiently important to be recorded, although doubtless 
some was made. All things appeared unaltered : a title alone was 
changed. It is, nevertheless, beyond all question, that a great event was 
then accomplished : no doubt this change was the symptom of the end 
of a certain social state, and of the commencement of a new state, — a 
crisis, a true epoch in the history of French civilization. "f The change 
effected was plainly this, that royal descent was deemed an insufficient 
title to the crown, where personal disqualifications existed, and that the 
general interests of the nation were deemed paramount to the claims of 
an individual. The relations of the Pontiff to the new dynasty were 
rendered more intimate by his concurrence in their elevation to the 
throne, and his influence with the people in civil affairs was confirmed 
and increased. Nations and princes thenceforward viewed him as the 
expounder of their duties, and arbiter of their disputes. Five hundred 
years later, Innocent IV. showed a more delicate regard for the rights of 
the nominal sovereign. Sanchez, King of Portugal, surnamed the 
Cowled, from his monastic temperament, proving inadequate to the go- 
vernment, the Bishops of Braga and Conimbra, with some of the secular 
nobility, were commissioned to solicit the Pope, in the Council of Lyons, 
that he might be deprived of the crown. Innocent declined acceding to 
the request, but consented that Alphonsus, who was heir-apparent to the 
throne, being the brother of Sanchez, who was childless, should be 
charged with the administration, while the title of king and a becoming 
maintenance should be given to the impotent monarch. 

The pontifical sanction was eagerly sought by kings to secure the suc- 
cession to the throne, that strife and bloodshed might be avoided. The 
coronation of a young prince by the Pope settled the title more effec- 
tually than a modern act of Parliament for the better regulating of the 
succession. His person was thenceforward considered sacred, since the 
judgment of the Pontiff and the mysterious ceremony had ratified his 
title to the throne. Ethel wulf, King of the Western Saxons, sent to the 
eternal city his son Alfred, that he might be crowned by the Pope, and 
thus declared heir to the throne then occupied by his father. J The son of 
Demetrius, King of Russia, went to Rome in the time of 'Gregory VII., 

* Decline and Fall, &c. ch. xlix., A. D. 754. 
f Cours d'Histoire Moderne, t. ii. p. 226. 

i As he had elder brothers, Dr. Lingard thinks that the ceremony was designed to 
secure his succession, after their death, to the exclusion of their children, as the will of 
Ethelwulf directs. Hist. England, vol. i. ch. iii. 



310 



PAPAL SANCTION. 



swore fealty to blessed Peter, and alleging the consent of his father, ob- 
tained the recognition of his right to succeed him, through the gift of St. 
Peter.* Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, considering the delicate state of the 
health of Louis the Fat, suggested to him to avail himself of the presence 
of Innocent II., then at Rheims, to have the young prince crowned, in 
order to prevent strife between aspirants to the throne. The king accord- 
ingly came to Rheims, with his queen and son, and the nobles of his 
court, and had his son Louis VII. crowned as his successor, in the pre- 
sence of bishops from France, Germany, England, and Spain. Mendog, 
King of Lithuania, obtained the consent of Innocent IV. that his son 
should be crowned king. 

In cases where the order of succession could not be observed without 
danger to the public interests, the sanction of the Pope was asked for the 
necessary departure from the usual course. At the close of the twelfth 
century, the King of Armenia sought authority of Innocent III. to give 
effect to the will of Raymond, Prince of Antioch, who excluded his 
brother, the Count of Tripoli, from the succession, that the principality 
might pass to his own son and grandson. There were three claimants to 
the throne of Castile in the year 1218. Ferrand, who was chosen king 
by the majority of the nobles, was disqualified by his birth, inasmuch as 
the marriage of his parents was incestuous and invalid. To prevent civil 
war, Honorius III. legitimated his birth, and ratified the election. Gre- 
gory IX. was implored to confirm the title to the throne, which the King 
elect of Norway, whose birth was illegitimate, derived from the will of 
his father, to the prejudice of the rights of the legitimate heir. The 
Christian nations in those ages felt confident that the Pontiff would 
weigh well the respective claims of the aspirants to royalty, with a 
sacred regard to the national interests. 

Kings and other potentates, in the Middle Ages, eagerly sought the 
sanction of the Pope for their treaties. " The oldest treaty now extant 
between any of our kings," says Dr. Lingard, u and a foreign power, is 
drawn up in the name of the Pope, and confirmed by the oaths and 
marks of one bishop and two thanes on the part of Ethelred, and of one 
bishop and two barons on the part of Richard. It is, in fact, in the 
form of a decree of John XV., addressed to all the faithful, in which he 
states the success of the measures taken by his legate to put an end to 
the quarrel between the English king and the Norman duke. J Richard, 
King of England, on the conclusion of peace with Tancred, of Sicily, 
addressed Clement III. in these terms : " The actions of princes are 
crowned with greater success when they are strengthened and favored by 
the Apostolic See, and directed by consultation with the Holy Roman 
Church. "§ The Venetians and French having formed a treaty for the 



* S. Gregor. VII., ep. lxxiv. 
% Cone, col., vol. vi. col. 713. 



f History of England. Vol. i. ch. v. Ethelred. 
g Apud Baron. AnnaL, an. 1190. 



PAPAL SANCTION. 



311 



affairs of the Eastern empire, the Emperor Baldwin, and Dandolo, Doge 
of Venice, applied to Innocent III. to sanction it, by threatening the 
transgressors with anathema : which, however, for weighty reasons, he de- 
clined.* "Nothing was more common," as Leibnitz remarks, "than for 
kings in their treaties to submit to the censure and correction of the 
Pope, as in the treaty of Bretagny, in 1360, and the treaty of Staples, in 
1492-f 

Much odium has fallen on the memory of Adrian IV., for having, as is 
alleged, given Ireland to Henry II. It is, however, a mistake, to under- 
stand as a grant of dominion what was merely a sanction of the enter- 
prise. The king had only sought counsel and favor, which the Pontiff 
gave, without employing any terms that imply a transfer. He asserts, 
indeed, that Ireland, and all other islands on which the light of Christian 
faith had shone, are under the authority of blessed Peter: " ad jus beati 
Petri pertinere" which, it appears, had already been avowed by the 
monarch, in his application for the pontifical sanction. To understand the 
nature of this claim, we may be permitted to refer to a Bull of Urban II., 
issued in the year 1092, which says : " Since all islands, by common law, 
belong to the first occupants, we hold it as certain that the Emperor Con- 
stantine gave the ownership of them to St. Peter and his Vicars. "J 
Whether this persuasion arose from the supposititious " donation," or 
from the munificence actually exercised, in other respects, by the em- 
peror, is not apparent ; but the Pontiff seems to have claimed the rights 
of a feudal sovereign over all those countries which were not included 
within the limits of the empire, and which embraced the faith on the 
preaching of Roman missionaries. These pretensions were conformable 
to the prevailing ideas of those ages, in which men conceived all countries 
either as portions of the empire, having the emperor as lord paramount, 
or as free from imperial sway, and governed by their own rulers, under 
the protection of the Pontiff. In virtue of this feudal sovereignty, he 
conceived himself authorized to sanction the enterprise of Henry, which 
was professedly directed to establish order where anarchy prevailed ; and, 
as head of the Church, he favored the effort to restore discipline, which 
was said to be in a most relaxed condition. It is far from my intention 
to advocate the claim to feudal sovereignty, if, indeed, it be contained in 
the document, which is denied by ardent supporters of the Papal rights :§ 
but in justice to the poor scholar, whose merits raised him to the pinnacle 
of ecclesiastical power, I take leave to state my conviction, that he acted 



* Apud Raynald, an. 1205. See also Fleury, Hist., 1. Ixxvi. § 16. 
f Diss. 1, de act. publ. usu. Op., t. iv. p. 299. 
X Apud Ughell., t. iii. p. 413. 

§ Bianchi, Delia potesta e della politia della chiesa, t. ii. h v. § xiii. p. 353. This 
author is of opinion that the Pope put forward no claim to temporal dominion ; but 
availed himself of his spiritual supremacy to sanction a measure which appeared fraught 
with advantages to religion. 



312 



PAPAL SANCTION. 



in accordance with the general convictions as to the prerogatives of his 
station, from motives worthy of one who was charged with the interests 
of religion. I do not affirm that the condition of the Irish Church was 
such as was represented, or that the prince, whose hostility to eccle- 
siastical liberty led to the assassination of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 
was influenced by religious zeal in his pledges to reform it; but the 
general character of Adrian for zeal and piety prevents my subscribing 
his condemnation. 

The grants made by some Popes to Christian kings, and to the Teutonic 
knights, and others, to possess and govern such territories as they might 
gain from pagans by force of arms, must necessarily be reduced to sanc- 
tions of their military enterprise, as justified on general principles of law. 
The state of those countries was such, that it appeared lawful to invade 
them in the common interest of the human species, in order to stop un- 
natural excesses, and to extend civilization. This could be done most 
effectually under a religious sanction, which was given by the Pope to 
those who enrolled themselves under the banner of the Cross, having in 
view to prepare the way for the diffusion of religion, by an enterprise 
that was otherwise lawful. It belongs to the followers of Mohammed, 
not of Christ, to make proselytes by the sword. The expeditions in 
question were directed to reclaim men from a savage state, while they 
served to protect the ministers of religion in the exercise of their sacred 
functions, and to secure to converts freedom to profess and practise re- 
ligion. Cistercian and Dominican missionaries had preceded the knights 
in their expeditions, and had gained many to the faith. Innocent III., 
writing to the faithful of Saxony and Westphalia, observed : " As the 
discipline of the Church does not allow any one to be forced to embrace 
the faith, so the Holy See freely offers protection to believers, and exhorts 
Christians to defend the neophytes, that they may not repent for having 
come to the faith, and return to their former errors. Wherefore we be- 
seech you, and enjoin on you, for the remission of your sins, that unless 
the pagans, who live on the confines of Livonia, make and observe peace 
with the Christians, you take arms for the defence of your brethren."* 
Innocent IV., in granting to Duke Casimir such lands as he might ac- 
quire from the pagans, added the condition that their profession of Chris- 
tianity should be spontaneous. When the Teutonic knights with military 
force invaded these territories, the Pope, on complaint of the duke, con- 
firmed his rights as being prior to their invasion, and obliged them to 
depart. Thus it was evident- that the Papal concessions were directed to 
regulate the title and claims of Christian princes, and to favor the 
diffusion of religion, without prejudice to the free will of the conquered 
people. 

The barbarous habits of the Prussians, who were wont to destroy all 



* Apud Flemy r l. lxsvi., $ xxx. 



PAPAL SANCTION. 



313 



female children but one of each mother, and who otherwise committed 
unnatural excesses, are the most obvious justification of the war made on 
them, under the sanction of Honorius III., since writers on the laws of 
nations hold that a civilized people may interfere, even by force of arms, 
to prevent a continuance of savage outrages.* The Pope, besides, was 
solicited by a bishop already established in that country, who complained 
that the Christians were forced to apostatize, or violate their duty, and 
sought protection from these lawless acts. The advantages accruing to 
society from this and similar enterprises, are acknowledged by those who 
condemn them. Michaud says, " while condemning the excesses of the 
conquerors of Prussia, we must avow the advantages which Europe de- 
rived from their exploits and victories. A nation, separated from all 
others by its manners and usages, was united with the Christian republic. 
Industry, law, religion, which followed in the footsteps of the con- 
querors, to mitigate the evils of war, spread their blessings on savage 
hordes. Many nourishing cities sprang up in the midst of the forests ; 
and the oak of Romove, beneath which human victims used to be immo- 
lated, gave place to churches wherein charity and all the evangelical 
virtues were taught. "f " At the sight of the cross in the midst of de- 
serts and forests, there arose cities : Dantzick, Thorn, Elbing, Konigs- 
berg, &c. Finland, Lithuania, Pomerania, Silesia, became nourishing 
provinces under the standard of Christ ; new nations sprang up, new 
states were formed ; and to complete these prodigies, the arms of the cru- 
saders marked the spot where was to be raised a monarchy unknown to 
the Middle Ages, and which, in the present age, has risen to the rank of 
the great powers of Europe. At the end of the thirteenth age, the pro- 
vinces whence the Prussian monarchy derives its name and origin, were 
separated from Christendom by idolatry and savage habits : the conquest 
and civilization of these provinces were the result of the Crusades. "J 

Christian princes who undertook to explore undiscovered regions, 
sought the Papal sanction, lest other potentates should interfere with 
their rights, and deprive them of the fruits of their enterprise. About 
the year 1438, Eugene the Fourth granted to the King of Portugal an 
exclusive right to all the countries which might be discovered by his sub- 
jects from Cape Non to the continent of India; and Nicholas Y., in 
1454, recognised his right over Guinea. It is in vain to say that the 
Pope had no authority to dispose of these countries ) for he was only 
called on to protect the discoverers against the unjust interference of 
other princes, by recognising the right which, according to the law of 
nations, accrued from discovery. This he was perfectly competent to do, 
from the relation which he bore to the Christian powers generally : and 



* See Xotos of Barbeyrac on Puffendorff, Bu Droit de la Guerre, 1. viii. ch. vi. See 
also Grotius, de Jure belli et pacts, 1. ii. ch. xx. n. 40. 

f Histoire des Croisades, 1. xii. p. 514. + Ibidem, 1. xxii. p. 205. 



314 PAPAL SANCTION. 

accordingly, as Robertson remarks, " all Christian princes were deterred 
from intruding into those countries which the Portuguese had discovered, 
or from interrupting the progress of their navigation and conquest. "* 
On the remonstrance of John II. of Portugal, Edward IV. of England 
forbade his subjects to open a trade with the coast of Guinea, lest they 
should violate the Papal prohibition. 

The Bull of Alexander VI., fixing limits for the discoveries of the 
Kings of Spain and Portugal, is frequently represented as the most ex- 
travagant instance of Papal pretensions : yet learned men, Protestant as 
well as Catholic, regard it only as a solemn sanction of rights already ac- 
quired according to the laws of nations, and as a measure directed to pre- 
vent war between Christian princes. It is certain, as Washington Irving 
well observes,")" that Ferdinand and Isabella conceived, and in their appli- 
cation to the Pontiff stated, that their title to the newly-discovered lands 
was, in the opinion of many learned men, sufficiently established by the 
formal possession taken of them by Columbus, in the name of the Spanish 
crown ; but they desired a public recognition of their right, lest others 
should profit by the discovery, who had not shared in the enterprise. 
From the position which the Pope long occupied as father of princes, and 
highest expounder of law and of the principles of justice, his act was 
the most solemn confirmation of the title, and the greatest safeguard 
against encroachment. The terms of " giving, granting, and bestowing, 
of the plenitude of authority," are only designed to express in the fullest 
and strongest manner the pontifical sanction and confirmation. u The 
Roman Pontiffs/' says Cardinal Baluffi, " as universal fathers, not because 
they imagined themselves to be lords of the whole earth, but in order to 
prevent the effusion of Christian blood, found themselves, at the epoch 
of the discovery of America, in circumstances which rendered it de- 
sirable that they should divide the countries, and mark mutual limits to 
the conquests of the nations that took arms against unknown nations. "J 
Wheaton, in his great work on international law, observes : " As between 
the Christian nations, the sovereign Pontiff was the supreme arbiter of 
conflicting claims. Hence the famous Bull issued by Pope Alexander 
the Sixth, in 1493. "§ " This bold stretch of Papal authority," says 
Prescott, "was in a measure justified by the event, since it did, in fact, 
determine the principles on which the vast extent of unappropriated 
empire in the Eastern and Western hemispheres was ultimately divided 
between two petty states of Europe." || It should not surprise us that 
the right to give, as it were, a charter for the discovery of unknown 
lands to a national corporation in the Christian confederacy, should be 

* History of America, I. i. 

f Life and Writings of Christopher Columbus, 1. v. c. viii. p. 1S6. 
J L'America un tempo Spagnuola, da Gaetano Baluffi. Ancona, 1S44. 
g Elements of International Law, part ii. ch. iv. p. 240. 
[J Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. ii. ch. xviii. 



PAPAL SANCTION. 



315 



recognised in him whose office imposed on him the duty of spreading the 
Grospel throughout all nations.* This temporal attribution might easily 
attach itself, by general consent, to his spiritual supremacy, the exercise 
of which in the diffusion of religion it facilitated, by the support and 
protection given in return by the princes whose enterprise was favored. 
The personal character of the Pontiff did not disqualify him, in their 
minds, from discharging the high function of arbiter between them ; and 
Divine Providence gave to the world this sublime instance of the salutary 
influence of the Papacy, in directing an enterprise which has resulted in 
the discovery of the New World. f 



* See Barbosa, de officio et pott, episeopi, tit. iii. c. ii. n. 41, et seq. 
f See Du Pape, L ii. c. xiv., par le Comte De Haistre. 



CHAPTER VI. 



To judge fairly of the acts of the Popes, we must consider the general 
principles by which they were governed, and which, in a greater or less 
degree, were common to the ages in which they lived. The first great 
principle, which was the very basis on which all social order reposed, was, 
that the Christian revelation and law must be the supreme rule for princes 
and people, for nations singly and collectively. Christianity was, in fact, 
the supreme law of all Christendom. Hence it is still considered as a 
part of the common law of England,* and as such it is even received in 
this country,')* although the Constitution of the United States and the 
several State Constitutions have virtually annulled its legal consequences, 
by ignoring its doctrines. Arnold contends that the State has a right to 
adopt Christianity, if it think proper: "A State may as justly declare 
the New Testament to be its law, as it may choose the Institutes and 
Code of Justinian. In this manner the law of Christ's Church may be 
made its law; and all the institutions which this law enjoins, whether in 
ritual or discipline, may be adopted as national institutions, just as legiti- 
mately as any institutions of mere human origin. "J The nations, in the 
Middle Ages, did not feel themselves morally free to adopt or reject the 
Christian law, which, as they acknowledged it to be from God, they held 
to be binding, independently of their act - so that they felt bound to con- 
form their municipal and international legislation to its prescriptions. 
The Popes instinctively acted on this principle, and regarded as null and 
sacrilegious every human enactment which was opposed to the divine com- 
mandments. Michaud remarks : " In reading over the annals of the 
Middle Ages, we cannot but admire one of the most charming spectacles 
ever presented by human society, namely, Christian Europe acknowledg- 
ing but one religion, having but one law, formino; as it were but one em- 
pire, governed by one chief, who spoke in the name of Grod, and whose 



* Blackstone, Comm., 1. iv. n. 60. 

f "In the United States there is no established Church : it has been considered, how- 
ever, that we received the Christian religion as part of the common law." American 
editor of Blackstone, in loc. 

% Introductory Lectures on Modern History, by Thomas Arnold, D.D. Appendix to 
Inaugural Lecture, p. 69. 
316 



PAPAL POLITY. 317 

mission was to make the Gospel reign on earth. In the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries, the nations of Europe, subject to the authority of St. 
Peter, were united, one with the other, by a stronger tie than that of 
knowledge, and directed by a more powerful impulse than that of liberty : 
this bond was the Universal Church. "* 

The great effort of the Church was to make rulers and their subjects 
alike submissive in all things to the authority of God. She applied the 
divine laws to all classes, and urged their observance under the severest 
penalties which she could inflict, the highest of which was ejection from 
her fold. Feeling that she could not surrender or compromise the privi- 
leges and rights which she had received from her Divine Founder, she 
calmly but perseveringly protested against every attempt on the part of 
the State to encroach on her rights, or to control her in the legitimate 
exercise of her authority. She taught her children to render to Cesar 
the things which are Cesar's j but she enjoined on them most especially 
to render to God the things which are God's. Giving a religious sanction 
to the civil authority, in its proper sphere, she claimed an exclusive right 
to regulate what appertains to the supernatural order, and to govern men 
in the things of salvation. Hence Ranke has well remarked, that "in 
this separation of the Church from the State consists, perhaps, the 
greatest, and most pervading, and most influential peculiarity of all Chris- 
tian times/'")" Dr. Nevin says: "The separation of the temporal and 
spiritual powers, and the independence of the latter with respect to the 
former, has had much to do, no doubt, with the formation of that spirit 
of liberty which is characteristic of modern civilization."! The great 
struggle between the Popes and temporal princes, in regard to investitures, 
was an effort on the part of the Popes to drive them back within the 
limits of their own jurisdiction, and recover the territory of the Church 
which they had invaded. Under the pretext that, as civil rulers, they 
bestowed lands and other temporal advantages on the Church, they took 
on themselves to install bishops, by placing in their hand the pastoral 
staff, and putting the episcopal ring on their finger. Thus they insensibly 
came to control their election, and sometimes put on the episcopal chair 
the companions of their debauch, or the ministers of their vengeance. 
The enormous scandals which defiled the sanctuary, in the tenth and 
eleventh ages especially, were mainly to be traced to this usurpation : to 
resist which, St. Gregory VII., and his successors, exposed themselves to 
suffering and persecution. Paschal II., treacherously made prisoner by 
Henry V., yielded to the advice and entreaties of some who implored him 
to save his own life, and the lives of his adherents, by conceding the 
privilege : but he soon felt that he had betrayed his duty, and in a solemn 
Council he deplored, with tears, his momentary weakness. The bonds of 



* Histoire des Croisades, 1. xiii. p. 98. f History of the Popes, vol. i. eh. i. p. 29. 
X "Modern Civilization." M. R., March, 1851. 



318 



PAPAL POLITY. 



the Church were by successive efforts burst asunder, and her liberty was 
attended with, the renovation of her prelacy, who shone forth in the beauty 
of holiness. Emperors and kings occasionally became her benefactors, 
and atoned for the wrongs which their predecessors had inflicted. " It is 
somewhat remarkable," writes Mr. Allies, 11 that that Church which main- 
tains a standing protest against the interference of the State with spiritual 
matters, (a protest for which she is worthy of all respect and admiration,) 
should owe to the support of the State, in different periods of her history, 
very much more of her power than any other church. It may be that 
God rewards the fearless maintenance of spiritual rights by the grant of 
that very temporal power which threatens them with destruction."* I 
believe that her indebtedness to the State is very small. 

The compacts made between the people and the sovereign, which were 
confirmed by the rite of coronation, embraced the immunities and privi- 
leges of the Church, which the prince bound himself to maintain in- 
violate. Hence, when these were invaded, holy prelates resisted the per- 
jured sovereign, professing their submission to his just authority, but 
their unwillingness to betray the interests of religion intrusted to their 
charge. The Pope encouraged them by his approbation, threatening to 
hurl the censures of the Church against the violator of her rights. We 
are not now to inquire whether these immunities ought to have been 
originally conceded. They actually formed part of the compact in virtue 
of which the monarch reigned, and could not be disregarded without a 
breach of his sworn engagement. In enforcing them, the Pontiff acted 
in accordance with the general usages and public law of the age ; at the 
same time offering to sanction such contributions by the clergy to the pub- 
lic burdens as might appear just and necessary.f Boniface VIII., while 
resisting Philip the Fair, who forced the clergy to raise subsidies according 
to his pleasure, consented that they should, of their own free and concerted 
action, contribute to the public wants, and that in case of any general or 
special necessity of the kingdom, they should be bound to give supplies. 
The privilege in question was the right of self-taxation, which in this 
country, and wherever the representative system prevails, is now exercised 
by the nation at large, through their representatives. 

Some of the most illustrious prelates that adorned the English hier- 
archy are celebrated for their intrepid maintenance of ecclesiastical im- 
munities. St. Anselm, with sacerdotal fortitude, contended for the privi- 
leges and freedom of the Church against "William Rufus and Henry I., 
while he most sincerely professed submission to the lawful authority of 
the sovereign : u In the things of God I shall obey," he said, " the Vicar 
of St. Peter : in what regards the dignity of my lord the king, I shall 
give my best counsel and aid to maintain it."J 



* Church of England Cleared, &o. p. 114. f Cone. Lat. iv. § xlvi. 

J Conventus Rochingharaiensis, t. x., Cone. p. 494. 



PAPAL POLITY. 



319 



St. Thomas of Canterbury deemed it the duty of his office to maintain 
the ecclesiastical immunities against the encroachments of his temporal 
sovereign, and ventured to rebuke him as deviating from the line of duty 
which became a Catholic prince. Addressing Henry II., he says: "If 
you are a good and Catholic king, and wish to be such as we believe and 
desire you to be, if I may say it with your leave, you are a child of the 
Church, not her ruler ; you should learn from the priests, not teach them ; 
you should follow the priests in ecclesiastical matters, not go before them. 
You have power peculiar to yourself, bestowed on you by God for the ad- 
ministration of the laws, that, being grateful for His favors, you may do 
nothing contrary to the order divinely established."* " Most beloved 
king, God wills that the direction of the things of the Church should 
belong to His priests, not to the powers of the world, which, if they be 
faithful, He wishes to be submissive to the priests of His Church. "f 
Innocent III. wrote to Sanchez II. of Portugal in these terms : " "We 
beseech you, most beloved son, through the mercy of Jesus Christ, to be 
content with the authority which God has given you, and not at all to 
stretch your hands to matters ecclesiastical, as we do not stretch our hands 
to matters of royal, prerogative."! The justice of this distinction, and 
the favorable influence of the independence which is here vindicated, are 
too often overlooked by many advocates of civil liberty, who most incon- 
sistently claim for the State an unlimited control, even in matters which 
strictly belong to the province of the Church. " Strange," says Dr. 
Nevin, " that the advocates of equilibrium and counterpoise, who make so 
much of the policy of dividing powers to prevent tyranny, should not 
have felt the profound wisdom of this old church doctrine, even in a 
simply political view."§ 

T\ T ith reference to the principles of civil government, it may be safely 
asserted that the Popes were uniformly favorable to popular rights and 
liberty, although with strict regard to public order and established au- 
thority St. Gregory the Great rebuked an imperial officer for extreme 
severity in punishing crime, which, he said, reflected disgrace on the 
power which he exercised, the subjects of the emperor being freemen, not 
slaves : " This is the difference between the kings of the nations, and the 
emperors of the Romans, — that the kings of the nations are lords of 
slaves, the emperor of the Romans is the lord of freemen. Wherefore, 
in all your acts, you should, in the first place, have a strict regard to jus- 
tice, and next, you should preserve liberty in all things." j| Gregory IX. 
reproached Frederick II. with being at once a "persecutor of the Church 
and a destroyer of public liberty," by the unjust laws which he threatened 
to promulgate. In opposing the union of Sicily with the empire, the 
Popes guarded against the accumulation of power in the hands of one 

* Apud Baron., an. 1166, p. 535. f Ibidem, p. 536. 

{ Apud Raynald., an 1211. § "Modern Civilization." M. K, March, 1851. 

|| L. s., ep. 41. 



320 



PAPAL POLITY. 



man ; and in the various acts of Papal opposition to imperial encroach- 
ment, the liberty of Italy, Germany, and the nations generally, was vin- 
dicated. Michaud avows : " But for the Pope, it is probable that Europe 
would have fallen under the yoke of the emperors of Germany. The 
policy of the sovereign Pontiffs, by weakening the imperial power, favored 
in Germany the liberty of the cities, and the increase and duration of 
the small States. "VVe do not hesitate to add, that the thunders of the 
Holy See saved the independence of Italy, and perhaps of France."* 
" This policy of the Popes resulted in freeing Italy from the yoke of the 
German emperors, so that this rich country for sixty years did not behold 
the imperial troops."")" "Liberty and the Church" were inspiring watch- 
words of the Lombard league. Venice, Verona, Padua, Vicenza, com- 
bined against Frederick, pro tuenda libertate, in defence of liberty. J 
Pope Alexander was their friend and ally ; so that when the Lombards 
listened to overtures made on the part of Frederick, they made an express 
proviso in behalf of the Roman Church, and of their own liberty ; and, 
on the other hand, when the Pope was solicited to accede to some pro- 
posals of the emperor, he declined any final action without the concurrence 
of the Lombards, who had nobly fought, as he publicly declared, for the 
welfare of the Church and the liberty of Italy. § The like sympathies 
manifested themselves on many occasions. u Tuscany," says Hallam, 
" had hitherto been ruled by a marquis of the emperor's appointment, 
though her cities were flourishing, and, within themselves, independent. 
In imitation of the Lombard confederacy, and impelled by Innocent III., 
they now (with the exception of Pisa, which was always strongly attached 
to the empire) founded a similar league for the preservation of their 
rights. In this league the influence of the Pope was far more strongly 
manifested than in that of Lombardy."|| 

All the cities of Italy enjoyed that independence which Hallam ascribes 
to those of Tuscany, since even those which acknowledged the empire, 
had municipal rights on the largest scale, including the election of their 
own officers and judges, and every thing appertaining to internal govern- 
ment. The evil of those times was the excess of liberty, which, for the 
want of a general authority, to combine and preserve in harmony the 
various cities, degenerated into licentiousness, intestine feuds, and mutual 
warfare. Each city was a republic, whose citizens were most jealous of 
their rights, so that they limited the powers of the presiding officer to a 
short period, sometimes of six months only, and guarded by every possible 
means against the abuse of his authority, or its continuation in the same 
individual.^" 

* Histoire des Croisades, 1. xiii. p. 97. f Ibid., 1. xvi. p. 454. 

% Baronius, an. 1164. g Baronius, an. 1177. 

|| Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. iii. par. i. p. 259. 

f See Hurter, Tableau des Institutions et des Moeurs du Moyen Age, ch. xL vol. ii. 
p. 531. 



PAPAL POLITY. 



321 



It was the constant study of the Popes to guard against the perpetuity 
of the imperial authority in the same family, by mere title of descent, 
and to maintain the elective principle. In the vacancy of the empire 
under Innocent III., the majority of votes were for Philip of Swabia, 
who was deemed by Innocent totally unworthy, and in whose election the 
necessary conditions had not been attended to. Frederick had in his 
favor hereditary right, being son of the deceased emperor. The oppo- 
sition of the Pope to both candidates led some of the princes to murmur, 
as if he sought to take from them the privilege of electing the emperor, 
which, in his instructions to his ambassadors, he denied most unequivo- 
cally : " In order effectually to close the mouth of such as speak unjustly, 
and to prevent credit being given to the slanders of those who assert that 
we mean to take from the princes the liberty of election, you should 
oftentimes, by word of mouth, and in writing, repeat to all that we have 
had regard to their liberty in this matter, and have sought to preserve it 
inviolate : for we have not chosen any one ; but we have favored, and we 
still favor him who was chosen by the majority of the persons entitled to 
a vote in the choice of the emperor, and who was crowned in the proper 
place, and by the proper person ; since the Apostolic See should crown 
him emperor who was duly crowned king. ~\Ye also stand up for the 
liberty of the princes, while we utterly deny our sanction to him who 
claims the empire on the score of succession : for it would appear that the 
empire was not conferred by the election of the princes, but by succession, 
if, as formerly, the son succeeded the father, so now the brother should 
succeed the brother, or the son succeed the father, without any interme- 
diate person."* In speaking of Rudolph, Duke of Swabia, whom an 
assembly of revolted princes raised to the throne in place of Henry, 
Hallam observes: "We may perceive in the conditions of Rudolph's 
election, a symptom of the real principle that animated the German aris- 
tocracy against Henry IV. It was agreed that the kingdom should no 
longer be hereditary, nor conferred on the son of a reigning monarch 
without popular approbation. The Pope strongly encouraged this plan 
of rendering the empire elective. He otherwise labored to confine the 
imperial power within just limits, and to the Papal vigilance it must be 
ascribed that " before Charles V., the emperors durst not assume despotic 
power."t 

The several monarchies which under the favor of the Popes arose in the 
Middle Ages, were virtually republics, with presidents during good be- 
haviour, the sovereigns being considered only a degree above the nobles, 
and liable to forfeit their power, should they abuse it. Voltaire, speaking 
of the thirteenth century, observes : " Castile and Aragon were kingdoms 
at that time; but we must not imagine that their sovereigns were abso- 



* Ep. liv.. apud Raynald., an. 1201. f Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. v. p. 460. 

X Voltaire, Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. iii. cxvii. 
21 



322 



PAPAL POLITY. 



lute : there were none such in Europe. The nobles in Spain, more than 
elsewhere, confined the royal authority within strict limits. The people 
of Aragon still repeat the ancient formulary used in the inauguration of 
their lyings. The chief-justice of the kingdom, in the name of the various 
classes of citizens, said : 1 We, who are as good as you, and more powerful 
than you, make you our king and lord, on condition that you preserve our 
privileges, and not otherwise/ ;; * " The oath made by the kings (of 
Poland) on their coronation contained an express call on the nation to de- 
throne them, in case they did not observe the laws which they swore to 
respect."f "No mistake can be greater," says Dr. Nevin, "than that by 
which the exaggeration of the authority of rulers, at the cost of popular 
rights, is held to be the natural and necessary doctrine of Catholicism, as 
distinguished from the genius of Protestantism. History plainly teaches" 
a different lesson. "J As long as the Pope was revered as the father and 
judge of kings, these felt that there were limits which they could not 
pass without peril : but when it was proclaimed that kings are answerable 
only to God, a deep wound was inflicted on popular liberty in the attack 
on pontifical supremacy. Royalty itself paid the penalty of its inde- 
pendence. "When the Pontiff let fall from his hand the mace which he 
had brandished to awe tyrants, the people, seizing it, wielded it with 
brutal force, and left even just monarchs weltering in their blood. 
England saw Charles I. perish by the hands of the public executioner; 
and France doomed the meek Louis XVI. to the same ignominious end. 
Never was a Papal sentence of deposition exhibited on a scaffold ! 

While the Popes labored to instruct kings in justice, they cherished 
with paternal fondness the Italian republics, which grew up under their 
fostering protection. At the request of the Doge of Venice, Gregory IX. 
became the special protector of that republic, and gave her the ocean as 
her dowry. She flourished long in arms and arts, commerce and enter- 
prise of every honorable kind, the ally and friend of Rome, until Sarpi 
and other false men disturbed that harmony, by disregarding the ancient 
immunities of the clergy, which, in the zenith of her power, she had 
respected. The eternal city still stands in her strength, while the queen 
of the waters has forfeited her portion ; and the German soldier guards 
the palace, where her merchant princes once deliberated whether they 
would grant the favors which sovereigns did not disdain to ask at their 
hands. The Pontiffs always favored the republic, unless in circumstances 
of this unfortunate character, in which the usages, which for ages had 
been deemed laws of the whole Christian confederacy, were wantonly 
violated. Many interesting examples of Papal interposition to appease 
the dissensions of republics, one with the other, or within themselves, are 
recorded. Speaking of the struggles for office between the aristocracy and 



* Voltaire, Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. ii. ch. Ix. f Ibidem, ch. cxv. 

% Ibidem, ch. cxv. § -Modern Civilization, M. R, March, 1851. 



PAPAL POLITY. 



323 



commonalty, Hallam says : " In one or two cities, a temporary compro- 
mise was made through the intervention of the Pope, whereby offices of 
public trust, from the highest to the lowest, were divided in equal propor- 
tions, or otherwise, between the nobles and the people. This is no bad 
expedient, and proved singularly efficacious in appeasing the dissensions 
of ancient Koine."* It is pleasing to be able to point out such examples 
of pontifical interposition to regulate the social relations so as to satisfy 
every class of the community. The general tendency of such interposi- 
tion was of this character, which is proved by the result, as testified by a 
distinguished writer. "It is historically certain," writes Dr. Kevin, 
" that European society, as a whole, in the period before the Reformation, 
was steadily advancing in the direction of a rational, safe liberty. The 
problem by which the several interests of the throne, the aristocracy, and 
the mass of the people were to be rightly guarded and carried forward in 
the onward movement of civilization, so as by just harmony to serve and 
not hinder the true welfare of all, was one of vast difficulty j which, how- 
ever, in the face of manifold disturbing forces, we may see still approxi- 
mating, at least, more and more toward its own full and proper solution. 
The simple position of these several elements relatively to each other, at 
the going out of the Middle Ages, is of itself enough to show how false 
it is to represent the old Catholicity as the enemy of popular liberty : for 
we see that European civilization, at this time, after having been for so 
many centuries under the sole guardianship of that power, presented no 
one of these interests as exclusively predominant."')* 

When the Gospel was first preached, slavery prevailed among the most 
civilized nations, and the apostles, careful not to disturb the actual order 
of society, inculcated submission to the slave, to the master humanity. 
The Popes faithfully followed their example, as has been shown by the 
late lamented Bishop of Charleston, in his learned letters on this subject. 
Yet, while respecting existing relations, they did much to mitigate the 
evils of servitude, and to raise the slave to that moral elevation, which 
might fit him for the enjoyment of civil liberty. Encouragement was 
given to the. manumission of slaves ; the natural rights of man, in regard 
to the freedom of marriage, were held to be inviolable, notwithstanding 
his social dependency j and religious privileges were communicated to all, 
without distinction. The salvation of the slave was especially had in 
view. In the middle of the eighth century, Zachary gave a noble ex- 
ample of zeal and humanity. Some Yenetian merchants had purchased 
at Rome a great number of slaves, with a view to sell them at a higher 
price, for transportation to Africa. The Pope, shocked at the thought of 
the danger of salvation to which the poor slaves would be exposed, gene- 
rously indemnified the merchants for their outlay of money, and set the 



* Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. iii. par. i. p. 278. 

f "Modern Civilization." M. R., March, 1851. 



324 



PAPAL POLITY. 



slaves at liberty. In the same spirit, Alexander III., m the year 1167, 
in the Council of Lateran, forbade Christians to be held as slaves by Jews 
or Saracens.* 

It is impossible to overrate what the Popes have done for the proper 
organization of society, and the maintenance of order. In the confusion 
of the Middle Ages, when an appeal to the sword was the first resort of 
half-civilized nobles and their followers, they raised their voice in behalf 
of justice. Not only did they regulate the proceedings of the ecclesiasti- 
cal tribunals, so as to present a model for the civil powers, but, going 
beyoDd the precise limits of Church authority, they made several enact- 
ments of a civil character, to secure the attainment of right, and prevent 
fraud and violence. The great Council of Lateran, held in 1215, contains 
several decrees of this kind. I shall give one remarkable instance, which 
to the present day is followed in the practice of the courts of the United 
States, as well as throughout the British Empire. The mode of proceed- 
ings in criminal cases prescribed by it, still serves as the rule of criminal 
jurisprudence, in secular, as well as ecclesiastical courts. Where a public 
report prevails of the commission of crime, inquiry is to be made by the 
judge, and information sought. Such is now the practice of the Grand 
Jury as a Court of Inquest, preparatory to their making a presentment. - )" 
The canon, however, requires the individual whom the report regards, to 
be present at the investigation, unless he absent himself contumaciously. 
He is to be apprized of the charges made against him, that he may have 
an opportunity of defending himself. The judge is directed to communi- 
cate to him the names of the witnesses, and their depositions, and to 
receive his objections and defence. The Roman law required that the 
accusation should be given, in writing, to the judge ; which regulation 
was inserted, in the decretals of Isidore : but the entire process above 
delineated may be fairly ascribed to the eminent Pontiff, Innocent ILL? 

The Councils of the Church were deliberative assemblies, which, in the 
Middle Ages, assumed a mixed character, from the presence of princes 
and nobles, whose wishes were respected, and whose consent was awaited 
in matters of a temporal nature. These prepared the way for the cortes, 
cJiambres, parliaments, and other legislative assemblies of later times, in 
which the general interests of the respective nations are provided for, by 
enactments made by their representatives. " The system, indeed, of ec- 
clesiastical Councils, considered as organs of the Church, rested upon the 



* In former editions, the praise of having abolished the slavery of Christians is given 
to this Pontiff, on the authority of Bancroft and Voltaire, -with whom Fuller and De 
Maistre agree. The canon xxvi. of the Council does not imply so much. Carriere is of 
opinion that there is no other ground for the assertion. — De Justitia et Jure, t. i. p. i. $ i. 
c. iii. 50, p. 75. Mcehler, treating on the abolition of slavery, does not make mention of 
Alexander III. See " Le Christianisme et l'Esclavage," par Therou. 

f Blackstone, Comm., 1. iv. n. 301. 

J C. Qualiter et quando, 24, de accus. extra. 



PAPAL POLITY. 



325 



principle of a virtual or an express representation, and had a tendency to 
render its application to national assemblies more familiar."* The clergy 
have no longer that influence which once enabled them to direct legisla- 
tion in a manner subordinate to the higher interests of religion, and the 
laity, who now almost' everywhere exclusively constitute those assemblies, 
have forgotten that they originated in the enlightened policy of the Popes 
and bishops. 

Although the established usages and the laws of the various nations 
were necessarily treated with wise toleration and indulgence, the Popes 
labored incessantly to correct whatever was reprehensible in them, and to 
promote a general system of legislation. As the Gothic code of laws con- 
tained no penalty for sacrileges, John VIII., in a Council held at Troves, 
undertook to supply this defect from the Eoman law, modified by the 
milder legislation of Charlemagne. f With the same views, the study of 
the civil or Cesarean code was also effectually encouraged. Xicholas I. 
made frequent reference to it in answering the inquiries of the Bul- 
garians. The common law, which is justly regarded as the basis of so- 
ciety, here as well as in the British Empire, is perhaps, not as Blackstone 
affirms, the result of the wisdom of Alfred or Edward, whose lost enact- 
ments are gathered from judicial decisions from time immemorial,! but 
rather, as Spelman avows, is derived partly from the laws and customs 
of Germans and Saxons, and especially from the canon and civil law. 
" Two other principal parts, (as from two pole stars,) take their direction 
from the eanon law, and the law of our brethren, the Longobards, called 
otherwise the feodal law, generally received throughout all Europe. 
Another great portion of our common law is derived from the civil 
law."§ 

TVe may then fairly claim for the Pontiffs the merit of having laid the 
foundations of order, justice, liberty, and all that appertains to modern 
civilization. Left to themselves, the nations would have sunk deeper and 
deeper into barbarism, while, by the mild influences of religion, their 
fierceness was subdued, their vices corrected, and the controlling power 
of law successfully established. Had they been isolated, they would have 
been known to one another only by predatory incursions, or other acts of 
barbarian aggression • but the acknowledgment of a common father bound 
them together, despite of national antipathies, and made of them one 
great family. " During the Middle Ages," says THieaton, " the Christian 
States of Europe began to unite, and to acknowledge the obligation of an 
international law, common to all who professed the same religious faith. 
This law was founded mainly upon the following circumstances : first, the 
union of the Latin Church under one spiritual head, whose authority was 



* Hallam's Middle Ages, eh. viii. p. 111. f Cone. col. reg., vol. vi. p. 198. 

J Comm., 1. iv. n. 301. 

\ The Original of the Four Terms of the Year, by Sir Henry Spelman, c. viii. 



326 



PAPAL POLITY. 



often invoked as supreme arbiter betwen sovereigns and between nations. 
Second, the revival of the study of the Roman law, and the adoption of 
this system of jurisprudence by nearly all the nations of Christendom, 
either as the basis of their municipal codes, or as subsidiary to the local 
legislation in each country."* 

The principles of this universal faith contain the elements of true 
liberty, independent of the various forms of government, all of which may 
practically assume the character of despotism. The relations of men to 
one another, when governed by Christianity, necessarily assume a mild and 
just form, and are insensibly divested of the asperity which they might 
otherwise involve. Domestic as well as social ties are hallowed and en- 
nobled by this influence, and the strongest guarantee of right is found in 
the general conscience. 

* Elements of International Law. Preface to third edition. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The influence and power of the Pope in temporal matters, connected 
with the interests of religion, appeared in the most extraordinary degree, 
in the great movements of the European powers for the recovery of the 
Holy Land. It has long been fashionable to condemn these wars as fa- 
natical, if not wholly unchristian ; but we should be slow to censure what 
met with the universal approbation of the most enlightened and holy men, 
during several centuries. It is more becoming to inquire into the prin- 
ciples on which they acted, and judge them according to their motives. 
My object, however, is to explain the part which the Popes took in these 
wars, and the influence which they exercised. 

Jerusalem and all the parts of Palestine consecrated by the footsteps of 
our Divine Redeemer, were viewed with special veneration by all Chris- 
tians, from the earliest period. In the seventh century, they fell under 
the Mohammedan yoke, and were thenceforward, for three centuries, sub- 
ject to the Caliphs of Bagdad and of Cairo, alternately, until the power 
of the Egyptian sultan prevailed. In 1076, Jerusalem was wrested from 
his dominion by Malek Shah, a prince of the Seljuk Turks from Tartary, 
who, some time previously, had invaded Syria, and other provinces. The 
struggle of the hostile clans continued for eighteen years, when the Egyp- 
tians again regained the ascendancy. In the mean time, the pilgrims, 
who flocked from Europe to the holy places, experienced the ferocity of 
the new lords of Palestine, and the Christian inhabitants of that country 
were most cruelly oppressed. The sufferings of the Eastern Christians 
had awakened the sympathy of their brethren in Europe, in the tenth 
century; at the close of which, "Pope Sylvester II., the ornament of his 
age, entreated the Church universal to succor the Church of Jerusalem, 
and to redeem a sepulchre which the Prophet Isaiah had said should be a 
glorious one, and which the sons of the destroyer, Satan, were making in- 
glorious."* The subsequent success of the Turks filled with alarm the 
Emp'eror of Constantinople, Michael Ducas, who, in 1073, applied to 
Gregory VII. to obtain aid against an enemy formidable to all the Chris- 
tian powers.f The magnanimous Pontiff received the application favor- 



* History of the Crusades, by Charles Mills, ch. i. p. 20. 
f Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. i. 

327 



328 



CRUSADES. 



ably, especially as hope was held out, that the reunion of the Greeks with 
the Church would result from the efforts of the Latins in their behalf. 
When enlisting an army for the defence of his possessions in Campania, 
against the Normans, he expressed the hope, that the enemy would be 
deterred from battle by the military preparations, so that the troops raised 
might be employed for the succor of the oriental Christians. In an en- 
cyclical letter he solicited the aid of the faithful generally, that he might 
send the desired relief. Fifty thousand soldiers were ready to march to 
the East, but the difficulties in which he himself was involved, prevented 
the prosecution of the generous design. Victor III., who succeeded him, 
encouraged the citizens of Pisa, Genoa, and other towns of Italy, to follow 
up the undertaking, especially as the Saracens infested the Mediterranean, 
and threatened the Italian coasts. The combined forces of these Christian 
powers made a successful descent on the coast of Africa, and reduced un- 
der their power Al Mahadia and Sibila, in the territory of Carthage, and 
obliged a king of Mauritania to pay tribute to the Holy See.* 

Alexius Comnenus, who occupied the imperial throne, in 1094, implored 
the succor of the "West, through ambassadors, who, in a Council held at 
Piacenza, at which Urban II. presided, urged the demand. Four thou- 
sand clergymen and thirty thousand laymen, congregated in the open air, 
received the proposals with acclamation. The narrative of Peter the 
Hermit, a Frenchman, who had just returned from Palestine, contributed 
not a little to excite the sympathy and inflame the zeal of the Pontiff. 
He had been an eye-witness of the cruel oppression of the Eastern Chris- 
tians, and had been charged by the Patriarch to represent their sad con- 
dition, and implore aid of their European brethren. From the court of 
Rome he hastened back to his native country, and everywhere repeated 
the tale of wo, so as to move to tears all who heard him. In 1095, a 
Council was called at Clermont; and, as the numbers who assembled 
could not be contained in any of the churches, an open square was chosen 
for the deliberations. Urban, who presided, spoke with an eloquence 
that seemed supernatural ; and as he concluded his exhortation to hasten 
to the relief of their suffering brethren, the immense assemblage, as if by 
inspiration, cried out : It is the will of God. 

The enthusiasm with which the address of Urban was received, and the 
promptitude wherewith the glorious badge of enrolment was assumed, 
should convince us that the motives for the expedition were plainly just 
and sacred. It is not to be thought that in any age, or under any circum- 
stances, thousands and tens of thousands would abandon their country 
and home, and expose life, for an object not evidently just, at the bidding 
of an individual, however elevated in station. Nobles, with generous en- 
thusiasm, left the court for the distant plains of Palestine, to fight for the 
liberation of their suffering brethren, and, at a great sacrifice, sold their 



* Histoire des Croisades, par Michaud, 1. i. p. 88. 



CRUSADES. 



329 



domains to procure money for the expedition : their vassals felt honored 
in being allowed to follow them to the field, where the conflict was not 
with a rival lord, but with the enemies of religion and of man. The 
monks went forth from their cloisters, to console and succor the crusaders; 
and the bishops, with large numbers of their flocks, were seen hastening to 
the sacred standard. The zeal of the Pontiff led him to visit various 
other cities of France, and to address fervent exhortations to the immense 
multitudes that everywhere assembled at his call. Although countless 
numbers perished on the journey by disease, and in conflict with the 
people of Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, and other places, who resisted their 
progress, and refused them provisions, he nowise relented in his grand 
purpose ; but meeting at Lucca a host of crusaders, who accompanied the 
Count of Vermandois, he placed in his hands the standard of the Church, 
that he might go forth to fight the battles of the cross.* 

The crusaders are sometimes represented as influenced by no other 
motive than the desire of rescuing the Holy Land from the infidel. 
This, however, is not the fact. For three centuries Jerusalem had been 
in the power of the Caliphs, without any effort having been made by the 
Christians to wrest it from their hands : it was the ferocity of the Turks 
which filled Europe with alarm and indignation, f The spirit of the cru- 
sades abated, when the Syrian Christians ceased to be so grievously 
oppressed. The ardor with which all Europe engaged in the struggle, 
was owing to the picture of suffering presented to them by the Hermit 
and the Pontiff. Doubtless their enthusiasm was increased by the con- 
sideration that the scene of those sufferings had been hallowed by the 
presence, miracles, and sufferings of Christ: but this does not detract 
from the lawfulness of the war, as undertaken for the relief of their 
fellow-Christians. " They were armed," as Michaud remarks, " in behalf 
of the wretched and the oppressed. They went forward to defend a 
religion which awakened their sympathies for distant sufferers, and caused 
them to discover brothers in the inhabitants of countries unknown to 
them.,"{ 

I know not whether it will be denied, that it was lawful for the nations 
of Europe to make war upon the Turks, in consequence of the outrages 
committed on European pilgrims, and the constant oppression of the 
Christians of Palestine. At this day nations resent the affronts and 
injuries of foreign powers to individual citizens sojourning in distant 
countries. Grovernments also connive at the raising of volunteers to aid 
the oppressed in asserting their rights, and sometimes openly join in the 
struggle. In many extreme cases, there seems to be no other means of 
rescuing the people from cruel despotism, than the intervention of a 



* Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. ii. p. 177. 
• f Robertson's View of the State of Europe, sect. 1. 
j Histoire des Croisades, I. iv. p. 512. 



330 



CRUSADES. 



foreign power, demanding that the citizens be governed on principles of 
humanity and justice. If it be ever lawful for foreigners to interpose, it 
was surely so when fierce barbarians trampled under foot every natural 
right, delivered the daughters of Christians to dishonor, forced their sons 
to apostatize, and butchered the parents. The meek and suffering spirit 
which the Christian religion breathes, does not deprive men of the rights 
of humanity, or take away from nations the power to make just war. In- 
dividuals are taught to respect public authority, even when abused for 
purposes of persecution : but nations can appeal on the battle-field to the 
God of hosts, to vindicate justice and right. The actual government of 
Palestine had not prescription in its favor. The Turks were invaders, 
who, a short time before, had seized on the reins of power; and the 
Egyptians, when for a time successful, had not recovered pacific and 
secure possession. There was nothing in the title of the rulers of Syria, 
to form a bar against the interference of the European powers, who were 
anxious to rescue their Eastern brethren. 

The crusades were undertaken in the name of humanity, as well as of 
religion ; and the destruction of the infidel was vowed, not as an act in 
itself acceptable, but as a necessary means for vindicating the oppressed. 
The shedding of human blood is to be abhorred : yet when it becomes 
necessary to maintain order, or put an end to outrage, God himself has 
given it His sanction. Hence we must consider the appeal of Urban II. 
to the Christian people, as an exhortation to a just war, and a wise effort 
on his part to give a proper direction to the warlike propensity of the age, 
by pointing to a legitimate object what for the most part manifested itself 
in acts of lawless violence. "Be ye armed/' he cried, "dearly beloved, 
with the zeal of God ; let each gird his sword, upon his thigh most power- 
fully. Be ye ready, and be ye valiant : for it is better for us to die in 
war, than to see the evils of the people and of the holy places. Go forth, 
and the Lord will be with you, and turn against the enemies of the faith, 
' and of the Christian name, the arms which you have criminally stained 
with the blood of one another."* This language may seem unbecoming the 
representative of the Prince of Peace : but if the relation of the Pope to so- 
ciety at that period be considered, he will be seen to have only spoken as the 
necessity of the case required. As the actual head of the confederacy of 
Christian nations, the only one who could effectually rouse them to a 
general effort, he raised his voice in behalf of justice and humanity. To 
exhort to just war was more humane than to suffer in silence the con- 
tinuance of the outrages of which the Syrian Christians were the 
victims. 

Mills admits that, " if Europe had armed itself for the purpose of suc- 
coring the Grecian emperor, the rendering of such assistance would have 
been a moral action ; for the Saracenian march of hostility would not have 



* Apud Baron., an. 1095. 



CRUSADES. 



4 

331 



stopped with the subjugation of Constantinople, and it is incumbent on us 
to prevent a danger as well as to repel one."* This was the case pre- 
cisely. Michael Ducas and Alexius Comnenus had successively applied 
for aid to preserve the seat of empire, which was threatened by the Turks. 
The Pope acted at their solicitation ; and his action, thus fully justified by 
the law of nations, did not cease to be just, because it was at the same 
time influenced by the prayers of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of the 
Oriental Christians, and by the sublime consideration of the holiness of 
the place that was to be rescued from the grasp of the unbeliever. Mills 
himself states, that " in some minds political considerations had weight, 
and Europe was regarded as the ally of Constantinople. "f The advan- 
tages derived to the emperor from the first efforts of the crusaders are ac- 
knowledged by Hallam, who does not conceive, as Mills, that the danger 
had passed away before relief was afforded. " In this state of jeopardy," 
he observes, when describing the advances of the Turks, " the Greek em- 
pire looked for aid from the nations of the West, and received it in fuller 
measure than was expected, or perhaps desired. The deliverance of Con- 
stantinople was, indeed, a very secondary object with the crusaders. But 
it was necessarily included in their scheme of operations, which, though 
they all tended to the recovery of Jerusalem, must commence with the 
first enemies that lay on their line of march. The Turks were entirely 
defeated • their capital of Nice restored to the empire. As the Franks 
passed onward, the Emperor Alexius Comnenus trod on their footsteps, 
and secured to himself the fruits for which their enthusiasm disdained to 
wait. He regained possession of the strong places on the iEgean shores, 
of the defiles of Bithynia, and of the entire coast of Asia Minor, both 
on the Euxine and Mediterranean seas, which the Turkish armies, com- 
posed of cavalry, and unused to regular warfare, could not recover. So 
much must undoubtedly be ascribed to the first crusade. "J 

Alexius, on the arrival of the crusaders, entered into an express league 
with them, binding himself to unite his forces with theirs, supply them 
with provisions, and aid them in the assault on Jerusalem, while, on their 
part, they promised to deliver into his hands, or receive of him as fiefs 
the cities of the empire which they might retake from the infidels. § 
This confirms the fact that they acted originally as his allies. After the 
establishment of the kingdom of Jerusalem, it was regarded as a colony, 
which the Western princes felt bound to protect. || The king earnestly 
and repeatedly sought the support of his European brethren ; and when 
the kingdom was overthrown, the Eastern Christians cried out piteously 
for aid. If at any time they seemed indifferent, or averse to the inter- 
ference of their European brethren, it was when despair induced them to 



* History of the Crusades, ch. xviii. p. 243. 

J Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. vi. p. 519. 

|| Histoire des Croisades, 1. vi. p. 170, Note 



f Ibid., ch. ii. p. 24. 

§ Histoire des Croisades, 1. ii. p. 194. 



I 

332 



CRUSADES. 



bear their chains without a murmur, rather than provoke the tyrant to 
rivet them anew. Thus, the third crusade, proclaimed by Celestine III., 
having failed, they seemed unwilling to share in the responsibility of 
another effort made by the same Pontiff, in the ninetieth year of his age. 
Notwithstanding this reluctance, the European powers felt that they had 
a right to protect the colony, since the general interests of Christendom 
were at stake. 

It is impossible not to perceive that the crusades were, from the com- 
mencement, and still more in their progress, virtually defensive wars, di- 
rected to repel Turkish aggression, and preserve the nations of Europe 
from the Mohammedan yoke. The Moors from Africa, imbued with Mo- 
hammedan superstition, were already masters of Spain; the Saracens had 
reduced under their power the southern provinces of Italy, and they fre- 
quently hovered over its coast, spreading desolation wherever they lighted; 
the Turks, fresh in the career of conquest, placed no bounds to their am- 
bition : they " became masters of the Asiatic cities and fortified passes ; 
nor did there seem any obstacle to their invasion of Europe."* The 
struggle between them and the Christian forces, which continued for ages 
with various success, proves that their power was in the highest degree 
formidable. It was, then, a master-stroke of policy to carry the war into 
their own territory, and to dispute with them the possession of their 
actual dominions, lest, proceeding in their course, they should obtain an 
easy victory over each European potentate, singly battling for his own 
safety. The union of all the Christian powers, which was the only means 
of effectual resistance, was wisely devised by Urban II. His words prove 
that this plea for the crusades is no ingenious after-thought, no invention 
of modern apologists : " We admonish you," said he, " and in the Lord 
we exhort you, and enjoin on you, for the remission of your sins, to sym- 
pathize with our afflicted and suffering brethren, the inhabitants of Jeru- 
salem and its vicinity, coheirs with us of the heavenly kingdom, (for we 
are all members one of another,) and coheirs of Christ, and to restrain by 
just coercion the insolence of the infidels, who aim at subjecting to their 
power kingdoms, principalities and powers, and to oppose with all your 
might their efforts to cancel from the earth the Christian name."f The 
same argument was advanced by Innocent III., to rouse the Christian 
powers to the fifth crusade. He represents the Mussulmen as glorying in 
their success : " What remains for us," say they, " but to drive away 
those whom you have left in Syria, and to penetrate to the far West, and 
cancel forever your name and memory from among nations ?"t If the 
crusaders showed but little apprehension of this danger, it only proves the 
more generous sentiments by which they were influenced : but the danger 
was not imaginary, or even remote, as the intelligent Pontiffs well per- 
ceived. 



* Hallam, Middle Ages, ch. vi. p. 519. f Apud Baron., an. 1095, p. 663. 

J Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. 5. p. 81. 



CRUSADES. 



333 



The manifest lawfulness of the crusades may he fairly inferred from 
the approbation which they received from the most holy men, and from 
the miracles which were wrought by some who proclaimed them. The 
eminent sanctity of Bernard, the famous Abbot of Clairvaux, who was an 
active promoter of the second crusade, is acknowledged, even by many 
Protestants. In the year 1145, Eugene III. having received the afflicting 
intelligence that Edessa had fallen into the hands of the Saracen, and that 
Antioch and Jerusalem were in danger, forgetful of his own perils and 
necessities, turned all his attention to the succor of the Christian King of 
Jerusalem. Louis VII. resolved to second his pious desires, with whom 
Conrad, Emperor of Germany, united his forces. In a numerous Council 
held at Chartres, Bernard was chosen as leader, who, however, declined this 
office, as unsuited to his religious state. The holy abbot, nevertheless, 
justified the crusade, as a necessary measure of defence against the ever- 
increasing violence of the Mohammedans : " Since they have commenced 
the attack, it behoves those who, not without cause, bear the sword, to 
repel force by force. Christian clemency, however, must spare the con- 
quered, as Christian valor should subdue the proud. ,; * He fervently ex- 
horted the faithful to enlist under the sacred banner • the Lord, as his 
ancient biographer assures us, confirming his preaching by the signs 
that followed it, which were so numerous that they could not be recorded 
in detail. f The faithful, fully persuaded that the undertaking was of 
God, rallied under the standard of the cross, leaving the cities and towns 
almost deserted, as Bernard himself testifies. J The failure of an enter- 
prise thus divinely sanctioned, is among the instances of the mysterious 
counsels of God. The perfidy of the Greek emperor and the temerity of 
the crusaders were the immediate causes of defeat ; which may also be 
ascribed to the unworthiness and sins of the princes and people. St. Ber- 
nard asks : " How does human temerity dare censure what it cannot com- 
prehend ?"§ 

The idea of encouraging the crusades by indulgences, has afforded 
abundant matter of reproach. These, however, were intended to reward 
the generous devotedness with which the crusaders undertook a long and 
toilsome journey, and exposed their lives in a just war connected with 
religion. The condition of true penance was always prescribed in order 
to gain them ; and, in fact, multitudes of most abandoned sinners were 
won to Christ by the assurance of unqualified forgiveness to the penitent 
crusader. The terms of the concession were not to be mistaken : " Trust- 
ing to the mercy of God, and authority of the blessed Apostles Peter and 
Paul, we remit the heaviest penances for sins to such faithful Christians 
as shall take arms against them, (the Turks,) and take on themselves the 
labor of this journey. Whosoever shall depart from life in sentiments of 



f Ep. cccxxii., Ep. Spir. 
% Ep. ccxlvi. 



f Vita S. Bernardi, 1. iii. c. iv. 
§ De Considerat, L ii. 



334 



CRUSADES. 



true penance, shall doubtless receive the pardon of sins and an eternal 
reward." " Whosoever, through pure devotion, not for glory or hire, 
shall undertake the journey to liberate Jesusalem, shall be considered as 
having fulfilled all his penance/'* Contrition of heart, with the humble 
confession of sin, is invariably required in the Bulls of Eugene III., 
Gregory VIII., Innocent III., and the other Pontiffs. Guibert tells us, 
that, up to the time of the crusade, the whole kingdom of the French 
was convulsed by internal strife; pillaging and assassination were common, 
and incendiaries abounded : but that, on its publication, there was an ex- 
traordinary and general change : dissensions were suddenly healed, and all 
the public calamities ceased. f Orderic Vitalis states, that " thieves, and 
marauders, and other like sinners, under the influence of the Holy Ghost, 
rose from the depth of their iniquity, and engaged in the crusade, with a 
view to atone for their sins. "J The preaching of the fifth crusade by 
Foulques de Neuilly was attended with extraordinary conversions, and 
abundant fruits of piety, besides the enthusiasm which it enkindled. To 
his contemporaries he appeared as another Paul, raised up by God for the 
conversion of sinners, of whom he considered himself the greatest. Of 
the first five crusades Michaud says, that " during them religion and 
evangelical morality resumed their ascendancy, and scattered their bless- 
ings around; at the voice of the holy orators, Christians embraced 
penance, and reformed their lives ; all political storms were quelled at the 
mere mention of Jerusalem, and the West continued in profound peace."§ 
Even Mills acknowledges, that the crusaders religiously prepared them- 
selves for death, when about to set out on their journey : " Throughout 
the crusades, most persons, considering the difficulty of the journey, and 
the perils of war, performed those acts which men on the point of death 
observed ; such as settling their family affairs, and making restitution to 
the Church or private persons. ; '|| In pointing to the crusade as a means 
of expiating sin, the Pope considered that the toils of the journey and the 
exposure of life in just war, offered up to God in a penitential spirit, 
might, in some measure, atone for past excesses. " Redeem," said Urban, 
"by this act, well pleasing before God, theft, arson, plunder, homicide, 
and other crimes, the doers of which shall not possess the kingdom of 
God, that these works of piety and the intercession of the saints may spe- 
cially obtain for you the pardon of the sins, by which you have provoked 
the Lord to anger." There was no pardon for the impenitent ; but the 
contrite of heart could not give a greater proof of their sorrow, than to 
expose their lives for their brethren in Christ, and willingly to accept all 
the sufferings and privations incidental to warfare. No penance which 



* Canon Conft., Clarom. II. f Guibert Abb., 1. i. c. vii. 

X Hist. Eeeles., reeueil des Histor. Norm., par Duchesne. 

$ Histoire des Croisades, 1. xiii. p. 102. 

|j History of the Crusades, cb. iij. p. 37, Note. 



CRUSADES. 



335 



could be inflicted, or assumed, could be compared with constant exposure 
to a scorching sun, or with thirst and hunger, such as they endured. The 
thirst which they at one time experienced, was intolerable to the strongest 
soldiers, of whom it carried off five hundred in one day.* During the 
siege of Antioch, hunger forced them to eat weeds and briars, dogs, rep- 
tiles, and every unclean animal. f 

Alms given toward defraying the expenses of the crusades were 
accepted in lieu of actual service, from such as could not enter on the 
journey; Frederick Barbarossa, in 1189, having obtained the Pope's con- 
sent to this commutation. { Innocent III. offered indulgences not only to 
the crusaders, but to all who contributed to equip and maintain them; 
and directed boxes to be placed in the churches, in which the faithful 
might deposit their alms.§ It is unfair to represent this mode of proceed- 
ing as a sale of indulgences, since these were not given for a stipulated 
sum of money, to be paid to an individual for his own use, but they were 
offered to all who would contribute, according to their ability and devo- 
tion, to an undertaking connected with the interests of religion and the 
independence of the Christian nations. If it was laudable to contribute 
to this object, it was certainly allowable to stimulate the charity of the 
faithful by offering to them a release from penitential observances. God 
himself encourages alms-giving, by promises of abundant rewards in this 
life and in the next. The Church imitated the divine economy, in dis- 
pensing her spiritual treasures to such of her children as might freely 
offer a portion of their worldly substance in support of the Christian en- 
terprise. An instance of a similar concession occurred eighty years pre- 
viously, when Grelasius II. offered a remission of penance, at the discretion 
of the bishops, to such as would contribute to the rebuilding of the 
church of Saragossa, which the Saracens had destroyed, and to the sup- 
port of the clergy of that city. 

The results of the crusades not being as splendid as the vast number 
of the crusaders and their enthusiasm might lead us to expect, many who 
judge from the issue of things, loudly decry them; yet their effects were 
by no means inconsiderable. The crusaders effectually checked the Mo- 
hammedan power ; they established and maintained, during almost a cen- 
tury, the kingdom of Jerusalem ; and, for another century, they retained 
the dominion of some places in Syria. When the disadvantages under 
which these wars were undertaken are considered, even 'their partial suc- 
cess may be a matter of wonder. A crusade was an army of volunteers, 
directed by no common leader, and commanded by officers accustomed to 
feudal domination. They fought on a strange territory, with no knowledge 
of the places, and in the midst of enemies, numerous, thoroughly ac- 



* Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. ii. p. 237. f Ibidem, p. 281. 
X Ibidem, 1. vii. p. 374. 

§ Ep. Innoc. III. Quia major, inter ep. ad cone, Lat. iv. spectantes. 



336 



CRUSADES 



quainted with the places, and of desperate resolution. They were de- 
pendent on chance for the necessary provisions, and they often suffered in- 
tensely from hunger, thirst, and every natural want. Nevertheless, the 
first crusade was eminently successful. Xice, Edessa, Antioch, and J eru- 
salem, successively yielded to the Christian arms. " The first result of 
this crusade," says 31ichaud, was to fill the Mussulman nations with 
terror, and put it out of their power, for a long time, to make any attack 
on the West. Through the victories of the crusaders, the Greek Empire 
extended its borders ; and Constantinople, which was for the Saracens the 
high-road to the West, was safe from their attacks. In this distant expe- 
dition, Europe lost the flower of her population ; but she was not, like 
Asia, the theatre of a bloody and disastrous war.''* " When we consider 
that this weak kingdom, (Jerusalem,) encompassed by enemies, stood for 
eighty-eight years, we have less reason to be astonished at its fall, than at 
its duration for so long a period. "f 11 On all occasions in which bravery 
alone was wanting, nothing is found comparable with the exploits of the 
crusaders. When reduced to a small number of fighting men, they were 
not less successful than when their forces were innumerable. Forty thou- 
sand crusaders took possession of Jerusalem, garrisoned by sixty thousand 
Saracens. Scarcely twenty thousand remained, when they had to engage 
with all the forces of the East, on the plains of Ascalon."J 

The constancy with which the Popes pursued their favorite object, the 
recovery of the Holy Land from the infidel, shows the strength of the 
religious principle by which they were actuated. The disasters of Louis 
TIL and of the Emperor Conrad, did not deter Frederick Barbarossa, 
Richard Cceur de Lion, and Philip Augustus of France, from entering on 
the same career of danger, at the bidding of the Pontiff. " Gregory 
Till, not only endeavored to deprecate the wrath of Heaven, by obtain- 
ing fasting and prayer throughout Christendom, but issued a Bull for a 
new crusade, with the usual privileges to the croises. Gregory went to 
Pisa, and healed the animosities between that city and Genoa, knowing 
well the importance of the commercial States of Italy to the Christians in 
the holy wars."§ Celestine III. again sounded the sacred trumpet, to 
summon volunteers to the relief of Palestine. Innocent in. used all the 
influence of his station to rouse the princes of Europe to undertake the 
fifth crusade, which, contrary to his intentions and wishes, resulted in the 
taking of Constantinople. With the applause of the fourth Council of 
Lateran, the same great Pontiff set a sixth crusade on foot, and con- 
tributed largely from his treasury to its expenses. His plate and golden 
vessels were melted by his orders, to be employed for this purpose, in 
place of which, wooden or earthen vessels were used at his table. "As 
germs of division subsisted between several States of Europe, which 



* Histoire des Croisades, L iv. p. 516. f Ibidem, L vii. p. 351. 

J Michaud. L iv. p. 509. § Mills, History of the Crusades, ch. xi. p. 14S. 



CKUSADES. 



337 



might prevent the success of the holy war, the Pope sent in every direc- 
tion his legates, as angels of peace, to induce reconciliation. He himself 
repaired to Tuscany, to terminate the dissensions of the Pisans and Geno- 
ese : his exhortations reunited all hearts ; at his voice the most implacable 
enemies promised to consign to oblivion all their disputes, that they might 
go and fight against the Saracens."* 

To the incessant vigilance of the Popes against the progress of the 
Turkish power, the European nations are deeply indebted for their inde- 
pendence. When, in 1259, Mogul hordes penetrated into Poland and 
Hungary, and spread terror everywhere, Alexander IV. addressed the 
princes and prelates of Europe, exhorting them to repel the invaders. 
At his suggestion, prayers, processions, and fasts were everywhere em- 
ployed, to avert the wrath of Heaven. On that occasion, the petition, 
" Lord, deliver us from the invasion of the Tartars !" was added to the 
Litanies. Urban IV. walked in his footsteps. After Ptolemais had 
fallen into the hands of the enemy, and the last hopes of the Eastern 
Christians had vanished, Boniface VIII. raised his voice in their behalf. 
Clement V. endeavored to resuscitate the extinct spirit of the crusades. 
John XXII. pleaded in behalf of the suffering Christians of Armenia. 
Benedict XL, in conjunction with the republic of Venice and the King 
of Cyprus, sent troops to Smyrna; and Urban V. proclaimed a new cru- 
sade, which resulted in the taking of Alexandria. In the day of their 
distress, the emperors of Constantinople had no surer refuge than the 
Pontiff, who employed all his influence to obtain succor for the Greeks, 
notwithstanding the repeated instances of their bad faith. Eugenius IV., in 
an eloquent strain, appealed to the princes of Europe in behalf of the im- 
perial city, when threatened by the Turks ; but the hour was come in 
which her faithlessness should receive retribution. The prodigies of valor 
of Hunniades and of Ladislas, at Warna, could not prevent the victorious 
Ottoman entering Constantinople in triumph. When his hosts advanced 
to Belgrade, and all Europe trembled at their approach, Calixtus III. 
sought to rouse all to the rescue, inviting the faithful to implore help for 
their Hungarian brethren, by the repetition of the angelic salutation, 
thrice each day, at the sound of the bell. The victory, which appeared 
miraculous, may well be ascribed to these prayers, no less than to the 
piety of St. John Capistran, or the valor of Hunniades. 

The efforts of Pius II. against the Turks, before and after his elevation 
to the pontificate, deserve the admiration and gratitude of Christian Eu- 
rope. At his earnest solicitation, an assembly of the representatives of 
the various States was held at Mantua, in which he presided, and, in ener- 
getic language, described the ravages of the enemy in Bosnia and Greece, 
and their advances, like a spreading flame, on Italy, Germany, and all 
Europe. He declared that he would not leave Mantua until he received, 
from all the princes and States, pledges of their devotedness to the com- 



* Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. xii. p. 403. 
22 



338 



CRUSADES. 



mon cause j adding, that if he were forsaken by the Christian powers, he 
would advance alone to the combat, and die in defending the independence 
of Europe and the Church. " The language of Pius II.," says Michaud, 
u was full of religion, and his religion full of patriotism. When Demos- 
thenes and the Greek orators mounted the rostrum, to urge their fellow- 
citizens to defend the liberty of Greece against the aggressions of Philip, 
or the invasions of the great king, they doubtless spoke more eloquently ; 
but they were not inspired by higher interests, or more exalted motives."* 
The frontiers of Illyricum were soon laid waste by the enemy ; the isles 
of the Archipelago and Ionian Sea submitted to his power ; and the dan- 
gers of Italy and all Europe became daily more imminent. Pius, although 
bending under the weight of years, resolved to go at the head of the 
Christian army, and, like Moses, to lift his hands in prayer for the people 
of God, in the hour of conflict. " What war," he cried, " was ever more 
just and necessary? The Turks attack all that is dear to us, all that 
Christians hold sacred. As men, can you be without sympathy for your 
fellow-mortals ? As Christians, religion commands you to relieve your 
brethren. If you are unmoved by the calamities of others, take compas- 
sion on yourselves. You imagine that you are safe, because you are far 
from danger : to-morrow, the sword may be raised over your own heads. 
If you neglect to succor those who stand before you, exposed to the 
enemy, those who are in your rear may abandon you in the struggle."")* 
The heroic Pontiff, in June, 1464, left his capital for Ancona, on his way 
to the scene of danger; but a fever, which the fatigues of the journey 
aggravated, soon brought him to the end of his earthly career. His last 
words were an earnest exhortation to the cardinals to pursue the work for 
which he had sacrificed his life. Paul II. endeavored in vain to enkindle 
the zeal of Christian princes for the enterprise; and gave to the brave 
Scanderberg a sword, with pecuniary aid. Sixtus IV. displayed like zeal, 
with somewhat greater success, having sent a small fleet, in company with 
the Venetian and Neapolitan navy, to the coasts of Ionia and Pamphylia, 
in order to compel Mohammed II. to retire from Europe, to the defence 
of his own possessions. When Otranto had fallen beneath the Ottoman 
arms, the Pontiff assembled around him the ambassadors of all the Chris- 
tian powers, and concerted with them measures of prompt defence for the 
other cities of Italy and Europe. Even Alexander VI. earnestly solicited 
the princes to unite in repelling the common enemies of the Christian 
faith. A crusade was decreed in the fifth Council of Lateran, which was 
commenced by Julius II., and terminated under Leo X. Soliman took 
Belgrade in 1521, the year of Leo's death - and, a short time afterward, 
the Isle of Rhodes, which was defended in vain with astonishing valor by 
the Knights of St. John. Buda fell in 1523, after the direful battle of 
Mohacs. 

While Clement VII. was a prisoner in the castle of St. Angelo, and 



* Histoire des Croisades, 1. xx. p. 373. 



f Ibidem, p. 378. 



CRUSADES. 



339 



the troops of Charles V. occupied his capital , he did not cease to interest 
himself for the safety of Europe from the attacks of the Turk. " From 
the prison in which the emperor detained him/' Michaud observes, " Cle- 
ment VII. watched for the defence of Christian Europe : his legates jour- 
neyed to Hungary, to exhort the Hungarians to fight for God and their 
country. ... It may not be useless to observe, that most of the predeces- 
sors of Clement, as well as he, had employed great diligence to discover 
the plans of the infidels. Thus, the heads of the Church did not limit 
their efforts to the rousing of Christians to defend themselves on their own 
territory, but, like vigilant sentinels, they kept their eyes incessantly fixed 
on the enemies of Christianity, to warn Europe of the dangers by which 
it was menaced."* " When the emperor had loosed the chains of Cle- 
ment VII., the holy Pontiff consigned to oblivion the outrages which he 
had suffered, and occupied himself with the safety of the German empire, 
which was about to be attacked by the Turks. In the diets of Augsburg 
and Spire, the legate of the Pope endeavored, in the name of religion, 
to awake the ardor of the Germans for their own defence. "f While 
Luther paradoxically denounced opposition to the Turks as resistance 
to the divine will, Clement continued to provide for the safety of the 
Christian commonwealth. When the army of the Sultan was at the gates 
of Vienna, seeing no human hope remaining, he appealed, not in vain, to 
the God of hosts. Famaugusta and Nicosia, in the Isle of Cyprus, subse- 
quently fell into the power of the Turks, and the butchery of their brave 
defenders followed the capture. Before their fall, Pius V. had succeeded 
in forming a league with the republic of Venice, and with Philip II. of 
Spain, to aid the island : but the fleet reached its destination after the tri- 
umph of the Turk. To this fleet, however, of which the pontifical navy 
formed a considerable portion, the glory was reserved of giving a fatal 
blow to Turkish aggression. In the Gulf of Lepanto, where Augustus and 
Antony had contended for the empire of Rome, the naval battle was 
fought between the Christians and the Turks. The flag of St. Peter, 
which John of Austria, the high admiral of the fleet, had received from 
the hands of Pius V., floating aloft, was hailed with joyous shouts by the 
Christian combatants, who cast themselves on their knees to implore the 
aid of Heaven, ere they raised their arms to engage in battle. Two hun- 
dred Turkish vessels, captured, burnt, or sunk, were the result of a naval 
contest, such as the world had never before witnessed, and which virtually 
decided the great struggle between the Mohammedan and Christian powers. 
The efforts of Saint Pius, and perhaps still more his prayers, obtained this 
victory. This single action, which closed his earthly career, ought, even 
in the judgment of Voltaire, to render his memory sacred. J 

In the decline of the seventeenth century, Dalmatia and Candia were 



* Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. xx. p. 464. -j- Ibid. 

J Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. iv. ch. clvi. 



340 



CRUSADES. 



attacked, and Hungary; Moravia, and Austria were invaded by the Turks. 
The voice of Alexander VII. was raised to urge the Christian princes to 
unite in repelling them. The Emperor Leopold fled from his capital in 
dismay. The Pope sent soldiers and money to his aid ; and shared with 
the King of France, and other confederates, the glory of a decisive victory, 
obtained on the plains of St. Gothard. When Candia had fallen under 
the Turkish yoke, the Pontiff again addressed the Christian States, and 
especially the heroic King of Poland, John Sobieski, exhorting them to 
check the insolence of the triumphant foe. Vienna was soon rescued from 
the three hundred thousand Mussulmen that surrounded it, by a valiant 
though comparatively small host, on the memorable 13th of September, 
1683. The Venetian republic concurred with the Pontiff ; and the ban- 
ners of St. Peter and St. Mark waved in triumph on the ramparts of Co- 
ron, Navarino, Patras, Napoli de Eomagna, Corinth, Athens, and through- 
out the Archipelago. Clement XI., in 1716, made great contributions in 
money, sent troops to aid the Christians in Hungary, who were assailed by 
Achmet III., and exhorted the Christian States to do in like manner. 
The victory of Prince Eugene at Peter- Waradin, and the recovery of Bel- 
grade, filled the Pontiff with joy for the success of the Christian arms, to 
which he himself had so effectually contributed. 

I have rapidly reviewed the efforts made by the Popes during six cen- 
turies, for the relief of the Eastern Christians, and for the safety of the 
European nations, that the reader might form a just idea of the motives 
which actuated them, and of the services which they rendered to Christen- 
dom. Their views were evidently more enlarged than those of secular 
princes, and their sympathy for the suffering Christians of the East was 
not less admirable, than their vigilance to preserve the independence of 
Europe. Their policy was of no narrow, selfish kind. With scrupulous 
fidelity they employed in those just enterprises whatever the charity of the 
faithful committed to their dispensation, to which they added much from 
their own resources.* From those wars they sought no augmentation of 
territory; but cheerfully left to the crusaders the conquered country, with 
the spoils and honors of war. In order to gain the infidels to the faith, 
they assured them that no sacrifice of temporal interests was desired. 
" We seek not your kingdom, but yourselves," said Gregory XL to the Ca- 
liph of Bagdad, and to the sovereigns of Cairo and Damascus ; " We do 
not wish to lessen your honors or power : our most earnest desire is to raise 
you above this world, and to ensure your happiness here and hereafter. "f 
With these elevated views they continued their endeavors in the cause of 
humanity and religion, incessantly opposing Turkish aggression. The 
Papacy in those ages, as has been well observed, " was constantly endea- 
voring to advance the borders of the Christian world — to reclaim the hea- 



* See letter of Honorius III., apud Michaud, vol. iii., Pieces justificatives. 
f Raynaldi, Annales Eccles., an. 1233. 



CRUSADES. 



341 



then barbarism of the north of Europe — or to repel the dangerous aggres- 
sions of Mohammedanism."* 

Spain owes her liberty to the crusades against the Moors, which sprang 
from the same principles as the Eastern crusades. "The celebrated vic- 
tory of Tolosa, obtained over the Moors, was the fruit of a crusade pub- 
lished throughout Europe, and especially in France, by order of the 
Sovereign Pontiff. The expeditions beyond the seas were useful to the 
Spaniards, inasmuch as they kept within their own territory the Saracens 
of Egypt and Syria, who might otherwise have joined those of the African 
coast. The kingdom of Portugal was conquered and founded by the cru- 
saders. The crusades gave rise to the orders of chivalry, which were 
formed in Spain, in imitation of those of Palestine, without whose aid the 
nation could not have conquered the Moors/'f 

I shall not dwell on the advantages to commerce, civilization, literature, 
and freedom, which were derived from the crusades, as Robertson fully 
acknowledges. J Although the all-absorbing thought of the Pontiffs was 
to rescue the suffering Christians and free the Holy Land, they were never 
inattentive to the social advantages which might flow from these enter- 
prises. During them, navigation greatly advanced, and the commercial 
republics of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, rose to great wealth and power. 
The barriers which separated the European nations, which had hitherto 
retained much of the estrangement from social intercourse characteristic 
of barbarous tribes, were broken down; society was formed on a vast 
scale, on the great principles of a common faith and common interests ; 
and the East and the West were bound together by hallowed ties. The 
serfs felt themselves made freed-men of the cross; cities sprang up in 
every direction, with municipal privileges bestowed in consideration of 
largesses made for the holy war ; and their inhabitants, during the long 
absence of the feudal lords, acquired the habits and sense of freedom. 
Learned exiles from Greece, and valuable manuscripts transferred from the 
East to Europe, laid the foundation of a new era in literature, which the 
enlightened Pope, Nicholas V., laboured to accelerate. § 

*• London Quarterly, for February, 1836. 

f Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. xxii. p. 222. 

J Survey of the State of Europe, sect. 1. 

§ See Michaud, Histoire des Croisades, 1. xxii. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



& it t X 4 1 

§1.— PAGANS AND JEWS. 

It is an axiom universally admitted, that the worship of God must be 
voluntary, in order to be acceptable. Liberty of conscience was claimed 
by Tertullian for the Christians, as a right grounded on the very nature 
of religion. "It is" said he, "a right, and a natural privilege, that each 
one should worship as he thinks proper : nor can the religion of another 
injure or profit him. Neither is it a part of religion to compel its adop- 
tion, since this should be spontaneous, not forced, as even sacrifices are 
asked only of the cheerful giver."* The duty of worshipping God con- 
formably to His revealed will being manifest, every interference with its 
discharge is a violation of the natural right which man possesses to fulfil 
so solemn an obligation. The use of force to compel compliance with this 
duty, is likely to result in mere external conformity, which, without the 
homage of the heart, is of no value whatever. The missionaries of Gre- 
gory to England instructed Ethelbert, the Saxon king, to abstain from all 
compulsion, and limit his zeal to the inducing of his subjects, by persua- 
sion, to follow his example in embracing Christianity; observing, that the 
service of Christ should be voluntary, not forced. f Nicholas I. forbade 
Michael, King of the Bulgarians, to use violence for the conversion 
of idolaters. J The fourth Council of Toledo forbade violence to be 
offered to any one with a view to force the profession of the faith and the 
reception of baptism. § Even amid the military expeditions which were 
undertaken in the Middle Ages to extend civilization and religion over the 
northern provinces of Europe, Innocent IV. declared that the discipline 
of the Church does not allow compulsion to be used for the propagation 
of the faith. We have already offered the reader an explanation of the 
principles on which the crusades in Prussia, and other countries, were con- 
ducted, which, although apparently directed to spread the faith by military 
terror, were in reality designed to put an end to unnatural enormities, and 
extend civilization, while they protected the preachers of the Gospel, and 

* " Tamen human! juris et naturalis potestatis est unicuique quod putaverit colere : nec 
alii obest, autprodest alterius religio : sed nec religionis est cogere religionein, qua? sponte 
suscipi debeat, non vi : cum et hostite ab auimo libenti expostulentur." Ad Scapulam, c. ii. 

f Bede, Hist., 1. i. c. xxvi. J Eesp. ad cons. Bulg., c. xvii. § Can. lvii. 

342 



COERCION. 



343 



converts, from molestation on the part of unbelievers. The profession of 
Christianity was. at all times to be the free act of those who were convinced 
of its divine origin. Force was sometimes necessary to preserve the public 
peace and protect the faithful against those who interfered with their wor- 
ship. Chief Justice Clayton thus meets the objection of those who are 
unwilling that Christianity should be supported against assaults by any 
legal penalties or safeguards : " We would reply, that while Christianity 
requires no aid from force, the peace and order of civil society do require 
much aid from it, to repel force and to prevent persecution ; that, while 
Christianity asks not to be guarded by fines and forfeitures, man has been 
compelled to make courts and prisons to guard him both by fines and for- 
feitures ; that, wliile Christianity stands secure in the armor of truth and 
reason, the public peace, which is altogether a different thing, has never 
stood secure in the armor of mere truth and reason, without the co-operat- 
ing aid of some public punishment to assist them ; that political and legal 
enactments are among the best means by which the peace has been pre- 
served in every country; and that while the law, too, seeks mildly and 
peaceably to establish her precepts in the hearts of the people, yet, if the 
people will the law to stand, it must be so administered as to compel obe- 
dience from such as do not yield it without force."* 

Liberty of conscience was especially maintained by the Popes in regard 
to the Jews, whom they would by no means allow to be coerced to the re- 
ception of baptism. Numerous facts place this beyond contradiction. It 
was so well known to the Jews themselves, that it was not unusual for 
them to have recourse to the Pope, when they felt aggrieved by the acts 
of inferior prelates. The Bishop of Terracina was denounced by Joseph, 
a Jew, to Gregory the Great, for having taken possession of a synagogue, 
under the pretext of giving to its members another place of worship, which 
he was now seeking to take from them. The Pontiff directed redress to be 
given, observing that unbelievers are to be drawn to the faith by meekness, 
kindness, and persuasion, not to be forced by threats and penalties. f 
When a converted Jew had erected a crucifix and an image of the Blessed 
Virgin, in a synagogue at Cagliari, the Pope, on complaint being lodged 
of the injustice thereby done to its owners, ordered the images to be re- 
verently removed, and the house left to its original purpose. He advised 
moderation to be observed toward the J ews, that they might freely hearken 
to the ministers of the Gospel, observing that they must not be forced 
against'their will, since it is written: "I will freely sacrifice to Thee." J 
Some Italian J ews, who frequented the port of Marseilles, having informed 
him that their brethren were constrained to receive baptism in that city, 
he wrote to Virgil, Metropolitan of Aries, and to Theodore, Bishop of Mar- 
seilles, praising their good intentions, but expressing his fears that the 



* Chief Justice Clayton; State vs. Chandler, 2 Harrington, Delaware, p. 573. 
f L. i., ep. 3, 4. X P s - 8, apud Greg., 1. vii. ep. 5, ind. 2. 



344 



COERCION. 



results would be injurious ; and directing them to instruct and prepare the 
candidates for baptism, that their conversion might be sincere.* In the 
middle of the eleventh century. Alexander II. praised the Spanish bishops 
for having protected the lives of the Jews from the violence of those 
Christians who were engaged against the Saracens. He justified the war 
with the latter, on account of the persecution which they carried on against 
the Christians, whom they expelled by force from their cities and dwell- 
ings; while the Jews everywhere submitted to the established authorities. t 
Innocent III., in 1199, in conformity with the examples of his predeces- 
sor, took the J ews under the special protection of the Holy See, forbidding 
any violence to be offered them to force them to receive baptism, or their 
property to be taken, or their usages to be interfered with ; but he forbade 
neophytes to be allowed to practise the Jewish rites, which they had of 
their free will forsaken, on receiving baptism.! 

"When, in 1236, the crusaders in France had committed various outrages 
on their persons and property, the Jews appealed to the humanity and jus- 
tice of Gregory IX., who immediately wrote to the Archbishop of Bor- 
deaux, and other French prelates, reminding them that the soldiers of the 
cross should prepare themselves for battle in the fear of God, by the exer- 
cise of charity. He added, that no one should be forced to receive baptism, 
since man, having fallen from innocence by his free will, must co-operate 
freely with grace, in order to rise again. The Council of Tours, in accord- 
ance with these instructions, forbade any one to offer violence to the Jews, 
observing that the Church desires not the death, but the salvation, of 
those that err. Soon afterward a similar appeal was made by the German 
Jews, who had also suffered. Innocent IV. accordingly addressed the 
bishops, and directed them to obtain for the Jews compensation for the 
outrages committed against them. John XXII. stood forward as their pro- 
tector in the year 1320. when sectaries called Shepherds renewed like 
scenes of violence in Languedoc, and other French provinces ; and Cle- 
ment VI. , under penalty of anathema, forbade them to be slain or beaten. 
This was in accordance with the teaching of the great St. Bernard, who 
loudly advocated the exercise of humanity toward them. u The Jews," he 
said, "must not be persecuted, or put to death, or even banished. "§ 

Rome has always been the asylum and home of this oppressed people, as 
Voltaire himself acknowledges : and Avicmon. because it was for a Ions 
time the residence of the Popes, shares with the eternal city this honor- 
able distinction.!] The restrictions to which the Jews have been subjected, 
even in Borne, in being confined to a certain quarter, and otherwise limited 
in their intercourse with the other inhabitants, have been owing more to 

* L. ep. 45. j Ep. xxxiv. Cone. eoL reg., toL vi. col. 1100. 

J Cone. Lat., elxx. | Ep. ceexxii. Ep. SpirensL 

•■ II n'y a gueres qne Rome qni les ait eonstamment gardes. ... Us sont rest£s con- 
stainment a Avignon, par ee qne e'e'tait terre papale." Essai sor l'Histoire Generale, 



COERCION. 



345 



the fear of dangerous collision, than to any unkind feeling on the part of 
the Popes : and, we rejoice to add, these restraints are now melting away 
before the benign influence of our present illustrious Pontiff. 

§ 2.— SECTARIES. 

The Emperor Constantine, in proclaiming liberty of conscience for the 
professors of the Christian religion, left the Pagans in the enjoyment of 
equal privileges, and gave protection to the Jews : but by a subsequent 
edict, he excluded heretics from the benefit of the laws in favor of Chris- 
tians.* He is even alleged, by the Donatist Parmenian,f to have ordered 
the execution of some Donatists, convicted of accusing falsely Cecilian, 
Bishop of Carthage, and of disturbing the public peace. 

Occasion was given for the interference of the civil power to determine 
the right of occupancy of churches and episcopal sees. In case a prelate 
abjured the faith, or corrupted it by heresy, it was unjust that he should 
hold the chair of authority and enjoy the revenues appropriated for the 
maintenance of a true pastor. His removal became necessary to avoid 
sanguinary collisions between his partisans and the professors of the 
original faith. "We have elsewhere seen that the authority of the pagan 
emperor, Aurelian, was implored to dispossess Paul of Samosata of the 
episcopal residence, and that he wisely determined that the right of occu- 
pancy should depend on the fact of communion with the bishops of Italy, 
especially the Bishop of Rome. The decree of St. Felix I. in favor of 
Donmus, the Catholic bishop, was executed with the imperial sanction. J 
Christian emperors took on them to dispossess heretical incumbents, and in 
order to prevent tumult, banished them from their sees. In very many 
instances Catholic prelates suffered from their misguided zeal. The inflic- 
tion of penalties for the profession of heresy may be justly ascribed to the 
excesses and outrages of sectaries. The immoral and anti-social principles 
of the Manicheans provoked the severity of Valentinian ) which was imi- 
tated by G-ratian, his brother and successor. Theodosius followed in their 
footsteps, and declared that the Donatists were included in the general 
proscription. The penalty to which they were subjected, was a fine of ten 
pounds of gold, and incapacity for any legal act ; to which, in some cases, 
banishment was added. St. Augustin states that he knew of no law sub- 
jecting them to death. § The blame of these coercive measures is justly 
imputed to themselves. a We daily," he says, " suffer incredible outrages, 
far worse than those of robbers and marauders, from your clergymen and 
circumcellions f (a class of Donatists so styled from their destroying the 
huts of the Catholic peasantry;) " for, armed with every kind of weapons, 
they rove about, spreading terror everywhere, and disturbing the peace, I 



* Tit. v., cod. de haeret. et Manich. f Aug. contra ep. Parnien, 1. i. c. viii. 

X Euseb., Hist. Eccl., L vii. ch. xxiv. § Contra litt. Petiliani, 1. ii. ch. xx. n. 46. 



346 



COERCION. 



do not say of the Church, but of the public at large. They attack by 
night, and pillage the dwellings of the Catholic clergy : they seize on the 
inmates, beat them with clubs, mangle them with various instruments, and 
leave them almost lifeless. Moreover, by a new and unprecedented kind 
of cruelty, they put a mixture of lime and vinegar in their eyes ; and, in- 
stead of scooping them out at once, they choose to torture them slowly." 
He proceeds to describe the horrible mutilation of Servus, a Catholic 
bishop, prefacing it by this remark : "I pass over the enormities previously 
committed, by whicb they forced the emperors to enact the laws 
of which they complain, and which are tempered with Christian meekness, 
rather than marked by the severity which such enormous crimes deserve."* 
We may not wonder, then, that the Catholic Bishops in the Council of 
Carthage, held in 404, implored the imperial protection ; and that Augus- 
tin himself, who, in the beginning, was averse to all coercive measures, 
changed his opinion, and wrote an elaborate defence of the imperial laws, 
by which these banditti were restrained. f It does not appear, however, 
that he at all advocated the infliction of capital punishment on them : on 
the contrary, he addressed the most solemn adjurations to the public offi- 
cers, that no blood should be shed to avenge the outrages committed against 
religion or her ministers.]; Lenity was so characteristic of the episcopal 
office, that when the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius deemed it neces- 
sary to decree capital punishment against such as might perpetrate enor- 
mous outrages against the clergy, they cautioned the provincial governors 
not to await any action on the part of the Catholic bishops, lest the law 
should remain without effect. " If any one," say they, " fall into the 
crime of sacrilege, rushing into Catholic churches, to offer violence to the 
priests and ministers, or disturb the worship and profane the place, let the 
offence be punished by the governor of the province : and let the governor 
of the province know that the injury clone to the priests and ministers of 
the Catholic Church, and to the place itself, and to the divine worship, is 
to be punished by capital sentence against convicts or culprits who confess 
their guilt : nor let him wait for the demand of justice by the bishop who 
has suffered injury, since the holiness of his office leaves to him the glory 
of pardoning."§ 

The imperial laws, so far as they are directed to restrain and punish out- 
rage, are justifiable on the plainest principles of justice and order. The 
general proscription of sectaries was the result of those acts of violence 
which usually characterized them. The Manicheans, who denied the law- 
fulness of marriage, especially fell under this proscription. By the edict 
of Theodosius, " the Manicheans were to be expelled from the cities, and 
given up for capital punishment ° y since no resting-place should be allowed 



* Contra Creseon. Donat., t. iii. c. xliii. n. 47. f Ad Vincentium Rogat., ep. xciiL 
X Ep. c, alias cxxvii., Donato. Ep. cxxxiii., Marcellino. 
£ Cod., 1. i. tit. iii. 10, de episcopis et clericis. 



COERCION. 



347 



anywhere to men who commit outrages against the elements themselves."* 
This severity was provoked by the immoral practices of which they were 
guilty. St. Leo the Great, as we have before stated, held a court of in- 
quiry, composed of laymen as well as ecclesiastics, and, on the fullest evi- 
dence, proclaimed to the world the crimes which were usually committed 
in their nightly meetings. These induced him to speak in terms of appro- 
bation of the laws which proscribed them ; but he was careful to observe, 
that the lenity of the Church shrinks from any sanguinary measure. 
"Our fathers," he says, " in whose time this abominable heresy broke 
forth, were earnest in their efforts, throughout the whole world, that the 
impious frenzy should be banished from the entire Church ; and justly so, 
since even the princes of the world detested this sacrilegious madness to 
such a degree, that, with the sword of the public laws, they cut off its 
author, with many of his followers. For they perceived that all regard for 
probity was destroyed, all bonds of marriage were dissolved, and divine 
and human laws were at once overturned, if men professing such errors 
were allowed to live anywhere. That severity was for a long time service- 
able to the lenity of the Church ; which, although content with the sen- 
tence of the priesthood, she rejects sanguinary vengeance, is, nevertheless, 
aided by the severe enactments of Christian princes ', since those who fear 
corporal punishment, sometimes have recourse to the spiritual remedy."f 
The first instance of the capital punishment of heretics, under the im- 
perial laws, occurred at Triers, in Germany, in the year 383. Up to that 
jjeriod, the Catholic bishops had suffered most sanguinary persecution from 
the Arians and Donatists, without invoking the severity of the law against 
their oppressors. St. Chrysostom had laid it down as a maxim, that " it 
is not lawful to slay a heretic, for this would lead to interminable strife f J 
and St. Augustin besought Donatus, proconsul of Africa, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord, to be mindful of Christian lenity, and not to punish them 
even as their crimes against society deserved. "We desire them/' he 
says, "to be corrected, not to be slain. "§ At length two Spanish bishops, 
Idacius and Ithacius, impelled by zeal which was not according to 
knowledge, denounced to the imperial tribunal Priscillian, and five of his 
abettors, as guilty of violating the laws, by the propagation of Manichean 
errors, a crime which was aggravated by licentious practices. Two of the 
most illustrious prelates of the Church, St. Martin of Tours, and St. Am- 
brose, condemned this proceeding, as unworthy of Christian bishops, and 
refused to hold communion with their vindictive colleagues. Of the meek 
spirit of St. Ambrose, a signal instance is recorded. While he was in the 
act of celebrating mass, hearing that an Arian priest had fallen into the 



* Cod. Theod., 1. i. tit. v. n. 5. 

f Ep. xv., alias xcii., ad Turribiuni, Asturicensem episcopum. See also Ep. ii. ad epis- - 
copos per Italiam. 

I Horn, xlvi., in Mat. § Ep. c, alias cxxvii. Donato. 



348 



COERCION. 



hands of a Catholic crowd, with tears he besought our Lord in the mystery 
to protect him from violence ; and despatched, without delay, priests and 
deacons to his relief. Yet it can scarcely be questioned, that the Popes 
generally adopted the views of St. Leo, and approved of legal coercion, as 
necessary to preserve public morals, and prevent outrage. At the same 
time, they strongly insisted that no one should be violently compelled to 
external compliance with religious duty. Pope Hormisdas, being informed 
of the violence offered to his legates, who were engaged in restoring the 
Eastern churches to the communion of the Holy See, and of the murder 
of a Catholic bishop, wrote to the legates : " Even if these be the facts, 
we, nevertheless, make no complaint against the people. It is in the power 
of the respected prince to punish the injury done to his authority, and to 
a Catholic bishop, as he may think proper; but our duty is, and we charge 
you to attend to it in our stead, to see that no one embrace unity without 
knowledge of the truth, or profess the true faith in such a way as to have 
occasion to complain of being forced to it by the prince, without the neces- 
sary instruction. "* John I., at the instance of Theodoric, the Arian king 
of Italy, undertook a journey to Constantinople, to dissuade the Emperor 
Justin from measures of coercion against the Arians, which the king 
threatened to retaliate on his Catholic subjects. The Pontiff succeeded in 
obtaining for them the free use of their churches : but, as he did not ask 
that the converts from the sect should return to it, he fell under the dis- 
pleasure of Theodoric, and died in prison for his fidelity to duty.f 

On a review of the acts of the Pontiffs up to the twelfth century,J I am 
convinced that they cannot fairly be charged with having made any co- 
ercive enactment, or sanctioned any sanguinary measures. We shall now 
consider the share which they had in the measures adopted after that 
period against the sectaries that infested the southern provinces of France. 



§3.— CRUSADES AGAINST MANICHEANS. 

In a Council held at Toulouse, in the year 1119, at which Callistus II. 
presided, it was enacted that the Manicheans should be restrained by the 
secular powers. In order to understand the justice of this enactment, we 
must take into consideration the conduct of these sectaries, of whom many 
were the followers of Peter de Bruis, and of Henry, his disciple. When 
Henry entered a city, in modest garb and with an affected air of sanctity, 
he was wont to address the people in language which excited them to 
violence and bloodshed. The clergy were the immediate objects of popu- 

* Ep. lxii. f See Pagi, Brev. Gest, Rom. Pont. 

X John VIIL, toward the close of the ninth century, is alleged by Llorente (vol. i. ch. i # 
art. iii.) to have promised a plenary indulgence to such as might fall in war with the in- 
fidels. He, however, neglects to state that the war was of a defensive character, for the 
protection of Rome, besieged by the Saracens. See Fleury, 1. Iii. §xl. 



COERCION. 349 

lar fury; their dwellings were plundered, and often razed to the ground, 
and they themselves were stoned, or assassinated, unless the nobles came 
to their relief.* The third Council of Lateran, held in 1179, under Alex- 
ander III., speaking of the various sects of that age, says : " They prac- 
tise such violence against Christians as not to spare churches or monas- 
teries, widows or orphans, aged persons or children, age or sex; but, 
heathen-like, they destroy and devastate all things, "f The venerable 
Peter, Abbot of Cluni, assures us that the followers of Peter de Bruis 
" profaned the churches, overturned the altars, burned the crosses, scourged 
the priests, imprisoned the monks, and forced them to marry, using threats 
and torments for that purpose/'{ Elsewhere he says : " Where they can, 
or dare, they plunder, strike, whip, sometimes even (nay, oftentimes) kill, 
without discrimination of persons, ranks, or dignities/' Hence he main- 
tains that the swords of the knights templars might be employed against 
them with equal justice as against pagan violence : " The Christian who 
unjustly suffers violence from a Christian, is no less to be defended by 
your counsels, and even by your swords, than a Christian should be who 
suffered like violence from a pagan. "§ The desolation produced by the 
marauding troops was such that Stephen, Abbot of St. Genoveffa, as he 
passed through Toulouse, saw the ruins of churches which had been torn 
down, the ashes of other sacred edifices which the fire had destroyed, the 
very foundations being dug up, and the beasts ranging freely where the 
dwellings of men had lately been.|| Of the Coterelli, who infested the 
province of Berry, Antonine, quoted by Baronius, relates, that "they de- 
vastated the country, pillaging it, and dragging the inhabitants into cap- 
tivity, violating their wives in their presence, burning the churches, in- 
sulting and beating the priests often unto death, trampling under foot the 
Divine Eucharist, breaking the chalices in pieces, and applying the sacred 
linens to profane uses/'^f The Count de Foix is related by Peter of Vaux- 
Cernay to have attacked monasteries and pillaged them, filled religious 
houses with courtesans, treacherously assassinated many of the faithful, 
and put to death those who surrendered on a promise of life being spared. 
He treacherously seized, and after a mock trial, at which Raymond, Count 
of Toulouse, presided, hung Baldwin, brother of this count, who, with 
savage cruelty, gave countenance to this atrocious deed.** Bernard Cas- 
vacio, Lord of Doma, and his wife, treated the Catholics with the utmost 
cruelty : one hundred and fifty persons, of both sexes, were found at Sar- 
lat, whose eyes had been scooped out by the tyrant : the wife causing the 
breasts of the women to be amputated, that they might not give suck, and 
their thumbs cut off, that they might not procure support by their labor.f f 

* Fleury, Hist., 1. lxix. gxxiv. f Can - ult - t Bibl - cllin -> P- 1122 - 

g Petr. Clun., 1. vi.ep. xxvii. || Steph. Tornac, ep. 75, al. 91, apud Fleury, 1. lxxiii. gxxxvi. 
f Apud Baron., an. 1183, p. 769. 

** Histoire des Croisades contre les Albigeois, par Barrau, vol. ii. p. 66. 
f t Raynald., an. 1214. 



350 



COERCION. 



Lawless fury generally characterized all the sectaries of those ages. A sect 
called Shepherds, under the guidance of a Hungarian apostate from the 
Cistercian order, assumed to themselves sacred functions, and declaimed 
against the clergy. Queen Blanche suffered them to pass through Paris 
without molestation, regarding their exhibitions rather as evidences of 
folly and delusion, than as crimes threatening the peace of society. Em- 
boldened by this toleration, they went to Orleans, and, in despite of the 
bishop, harangued the people, who warned the clergy, under pain of 
anathema, not to be present at their meetings. Among those who, prompted 
by curiosity, disregarded the prohibition, was a student, who, unable to 
repress his indignation, contradicted the preacher, charging him with de- 
ceiving the simple-minded people. The words had scarcely escaped his 
lips, when his head was cleft in two with a hatchet in the hands of one of 
the Shepherds. A general attack was then made on the clergy : their 
dwellings were broken into and plundered : their books committed to the 
flames : themselves wounded : several of them killed, or thrown into the 
Loire j so that twenty-five perished on this occasion. Above one hundred 
thousand of these Shepherds traversed France, spreading disorder and 
desolation in their course. Their arrival at Bourges was signalized by 
murder, arson, and pillage : which provoked the people to rise against 
them, and engage in a bloody contest, in which the banditti were dispersed. 

In order to understand why crusades were proclaimed in those ages 
against sects committing acts of violence, we must remember that there 
was as yet no standing army in the various nations of Europe, and that 
there was scarcely any code of laws, or tribunal of justice. The vassals 
of each baron followed their lord to the field : but in case of lawless vio- 
lence, such as that of the sects, which did not directly interest a poten- 
tate, there was no means of repressing it, save the summoning of volun- 
teers : there was no rallying power so great as the standard of the cross, 
and no allurement so attractive as the indulgences of the Church. In a 
Council held at Poictiers, in the year 1004, it was decreed, that in case 
of outrages being committed against the Church, regular process should be 
formed before the prince, or the local judge; but if the aggressors should 
resist the execution of the sentence, the bishops and nobles were to be 
summoned to compel submission by laying waste the lands. This was 
somewhat in the nature of a posse comitatus, called forth to aid the public 
officers in an emergency for which ordinary force was insufficient. Hence 
the third Council of Lateran, premising the words of Leo the Great, in 
which he declares that the Church, content with the priestly judgment, 
shuns sanguinary vengeance, did not hesitate to exhort the faithful to rally 
to the defence of the sacred virgins, and holy places, when violently 
assailed. " We enjoin/' the fathers say, "on all the faithful, for the re- 
mission of their sins, to oppose manfully such havoc, and to defend with 
arms the Christian people/'* 

* I xxvii. col. 1683. 



COERCION. 



351 



The immediate occasion of the great crusade against the Albigensians 
was the assassination of the Pope's legate, which, however, was preceded 
by many other atrocities. During the contest, awful scenes occurred on 
both sides, which stamp a character of cruelty on the age. Among other 
instances, fifteen cities, infested by Albigensians, rose suddenly on the 
Catholic garrisons, and on the Catholics dwelling among them, and made 
a general massacre, by way of retaliation for the sack of the city of Tou- 
louse.* Of the spirit, however, which animated the Popes, I find an evi- 
dence in the instructions of Gregory IX. to the commander of his forces, 
in a crusade for the defence of his own territory. " The mighty Lord," 
he says, " wishes the liberty of His Church to be maintained in such a 
manner, that neither humility prevent necessary defence, nor the defence 
go beyond the bounds of humility. "Whence it follows, that although the 
defender of ecclesiastical liberty sometimes, but rarely and unwillingly, 
uses the material sword against tyrants and persecutors of the Church, 
without forgetting the ordinary humility, he does not, however, use it in 
such a way as to thirst for blood, or desire to be enriched to the detriment 
of others ; but he rather seeks to recall those that are in error to the path 
of truth, and, in all meekness, to preserve them in their liberty when re- 
called. TVho can bear with patience that a man whose life could be pre- 
served, should be slain or mutilated by the army of J esus Christ, f and 
that the image of the Creator Himself should be thus disfigured, as, we 
have been informed, has taken place in these days, which has grieved us 
to the heart ? Brother, it is not expedient for us who invite the faithful, 
and even the erring children to the breast of our Mother the Church, to 
provoke them by outrages, and exult in the effusion of blood ! God forbid 
that the Roman Church, which is wont to rescue from the sword of justice 
criminals worthy of death, should slay or mutilate her children, whom she 
is bound to gather under her wings. ;; j Gregory ordered that the lives of 
the prisoners taken in war should be spared : " "VTe have thought it neces- 
sary to entreat and exhort you, and by our apostolic writings strictly to 
enjoin on you, to cause such as the right hand of Him who exalts us may 
have delivered into the hands of the army of Jesus Christ, to be carefully 
guarded, without any slaying, maiming, or mutilation of limbs, which we 
utterly abhor; that so, in captivity, they may enjoy more liberty than 
when, under Egyptian bondage, in the name of liberty, they obeyed 
Pharaoh and his ministers, the officers of his army."§ 

Of the humanity of the Popes we have some consoling instances, which 
relieve the mind afflicted at the horrors of these wars. Voltaire admits 
that there were instances of Papal interposition that reflect the highest 
honor on the court of Rome, of which he gives one example. Peter I. 
of Aragon fell fighting on the side of the Count of Toulouse, against the 



* Histoire des Croisades, par Barrau, vol. ii. p. 274. t The Crusaders were thus styled. 
J Apud Fleury, L cxxix. §liv. £ Ravuald., an. 1229. 



352 



COERCION. 



crusaders, who took his son prisoner. " His widow, Mary of Montpelier, 
who had retired to Rome, pleaded for her son with Innocent III., im- 
ploring him to employ his authority for his liberation. There were 
moments highly honorable for the court of Rome. The Pope ordered 
Simon de Montfort to restore the youth to the people of Aragon, and 
Montfort obeyed. Had the Popes always used their authority after this 
manner, they would have been the legislators of Europe."* Such they 
were in reality; which affords no slight grounds for believing that the 
general exercise of their authority was paternal and just. 

The wars carried on against the sectaries of the thirteenth century were 
professedly directed to their extermination, not by their indiscriminate 
slaughter, but by compelling them to disband, or flee from the provinces 
which they infested. Not only the integrity of religious faith, and the 
purity of public morals, but order and civilization were at stake. The 
sects were in revolt against the general Christian confederacy, which was 
bound together by one faith and one law, of which the Pope was the 
recognised teacher and interpreter. While the organization of society was 
advancing on this basis, the sectaries threatened its dissolution, and in- 
volved the Christian commonwealth in a struggle for its own existence. 
"What Chief Justice Clayton has said of our English ancestors, and their 
common law and judicial tribunals, may be said of the Christian nations 
generally which opposed Manicheism : " He who reviled, subverted, or 
ridiculed Christianity, did an act which struck at the foundation of civil 
society, and tended, by its necessary consequences, as they believed, to 
disturb that common peace of the land of which (as Lord Coke had re- 
ported) the common law was the preserver."t 



* Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. ii. ch. lx. 
f The State vs. Chandler, 2 Harrington, p. 557. 



CHAPTER IX. 



l 1.— ANCIENT TEIBUNAL. 

It was with a view to put an end to the horrors of the wars provoked 
by the sectaries, that a permanent tribunal for their trial and punishment 
was established, by the concurrent action of the ecclesiastical and civil 
powers. In a Council held at Verona, in the year 1184, at which the 
Emperor Frederick I. was present, Pope Lucius, by the advice of the 
bishops, condemned with anathema all heresies, especially the various 
forms of Manicheism. The canon proceeds to observe that " inasmuch as 
the severity of ecclesiastical discipline is sometimes disregarded by such as 
know not its power," clergymen convicted of heresy should be deposed 
and degraded, and "delivered over to the secular power, to undergo the 
punishment which they deserve, unless the culprit, when detected, abjure 
his heresy before the bishop of the place. Let the same be observed if 
the culprit be a layman, and let him be punished by the secular judge, 
unless he abjure; and let such as relapse after abjuration be left to the 
secular tribunal, and let them not be further heard."* This is certainly 
a formal recognition of the imperial laws against heresy, and an implicit 
approbation of them. If the character of the sectaries be borne in mind, 
it will not be difficult to account for this sanction. 

The qusesitores fidei, or Inquisitors, were first appointed by Innocent 
III. At the commencement of the thirteenth century, this strenuous 
Pontiff despatched two Cistercian monks, Guy and Ranier, to the south 
of France, to oppose the Manicheans, and charged them to use all diligence 
for their discovery and conversion, authorizing them to absolve them, 
when penitent, from all ecclesiastical censures. These commissaries had 
no civil attributions ; but they were directed to urge the employment of 
coercive measures by the civil authorities, when persuasion and exhortation 
had proved fruitless. The means employed by them and their associates, 
were preaching, exercises of piety, and other ordinary appliances of Chris- 
tian zeal. They were men of holy life, burning with divine love, and 
thirsting for the salvation of souls. St. Dominick, who was of their 
number, succeeded in reclaiming thousands to the faith, by examples of 



* Cone, t. x. p. 1737. 
23 



353 



354 



THE INQUISITION. 



apostolic poverty and charity. Another, St. Peter de Castelnau, a monk 
of Citeaux, who was, besides, invested with the authority of Papal legate, 
desired most ardently to shed his blood for the deluded sectaries; and, as 
if by prophetic instinct, said to his companions : " We shall accomplish 
nothing for the cause of Jesus Christ, in this country, unless one of us 
suffer for the faith : God grant that I may be the first to fall beneath the 
sword of the persecutor \" His prayer was soon fulfilled. An assassin, 
hired by the faithless Count of Toulouse, plunged a dagger into his side, 
and the martyr, as he fell, meekly said : " God forgive you, my friend, as 
I forgive you." 

The imperial laws, published in the year 1220, subjected the Maniche- 
ans, under their various denominations, to the penalty of death; and an 
edict published in 1224 gave civil force to the sentence of the inquisitors, 
inasmuch as the judges and officers were commanded to take into custody 
convicts by them declared guilty of heresy. This may be considered the 
origin of the tribunal of the inquisition, which, however, had not for a 
considerable time a stationary character or fixed form. The first General 
Inquisitor is believed to be John Cayetan, appointed in the year 1277. 
The inquisitors preached to the people, inviting them to come forward, 
avow and abandon their errors. They searched out those who neglected 
to avail themselves of this indulgence, and on conviction of obstinacy and 
contumacy, handed them over to the civil power. This was enjoined on 
those of Italy in 1238, by Gregory IX. The turbulence of the sectaries, 
which is fully attested by the records of the times, is the only justification 
which I shall offer for these coercive measures. Many of the early in- 
quisitors were assassinated. One of them, St. Peter of Verona, is honored 
as a martyr. 

The ecclesiastical, character of the tribunal is evident from its judges, 
who were clergymen, from the chief matter of cognizance, which was 
heresy, and from its original organization, which was planned and directed 
by the Pontiff. It assumed a secular character by the action of the em- 
peror, and of other potentates, who attached civil effects, especially capital 
punishment, to its sentence. For this reason, it could nowhere exist with- 
out the concurrence of both authorities. Raymond VII., Count of Tou- 
louse, introduced it into his dominions in 1229, in order to prevent a re- 
newal of the civil war which had raged there during twenty years, in the 
lifetime of his father, the protector of the Albigensians. James, King 
of Aragon, by the advice of St. Raymond of Pennafort, established it in 
his kingdom in 1232. St. Louis obtained of Alexander IV. its extension 
to all France in 1255. Premislaus, King of Bohemia, procured it for his 
kingdom in 1257. From the sanction which it received from the meek 
Louis, as well as from other holy men, we may reasonably infer that it was 
not designed to be a sanguinary tribunal ; it was intended as a measure of 
police, which would intimidate those who, in the name of religion, spread 
disorder and perpetrated outrage. 



THE INQUISITION. 



355 



The mode of proceeding prescribed in the Council of Beziers, in 1246, 
by order of Innocent IV., was calculated to prevent the necessity of re- 
course to coercion. On the arrival of the inquisitor in any city or town, 
the clergy and people were assembled, and addressed by him ; all who were 
conscious of the guilt of heresy being exhorted to come forward within a 
specified time, which was called the time of grace, and abjure their errors. 
Such as avowed them, with marks of repentance, were exempt from capital 
punishment, perpetual imprisonment, banishment, and confiscation of pro- 
perty. Those who were denounced by others, and who did not spontane- 
ously appear within the time, were to be specially summoned, informed of 
the charges advanced against them, and heard in reply. If their defence 
was not satisfactory, they were liable to be condemned, according to the 
nature of the evidence. Those who avowed heretical sentiments were to 
be privately admonished in the presence of a select number of prudent 
Catholics, that they might be induced to abjure their errors. Such as 
were obstinate were required to acknowledge their sentiments publicly, that 
sentence might be pronounced on them in the presence of the civil magis- 
trate, to whom they were handed over. Relapsed heretics, fugitives from 
justice, and those who suppressed the truth, were liable to perpetual im- 
prisonment. This punishment, however, could, after some time, be 
remitted with the advice of the bishop, on security being given for the 
performance of suitable penance. Such as were not imprisoned were to 
enlist for a time in the crusades, and to present themselves on Sundays and 
festivals in the church, in a penitential habit. Those who were condemned 
to death forfeited their property to the public treasury. By subsequent 
enactments, the tribunal obtained the benefit of these forfeitures : yet its 
funds were often so low that it could not pay the very moderate salaries 
of its officers. 

From all the means employed to induce the sectaries to retract their er- 
rors, it may fairly be inferred that comparatively few experienced the 
extreme rigor of the law. Llorente* makes a most extravagant estimate 
of the sufferers under the operation of the ancient system, although he 
himself acknowledges that its activity was chiefly confined to the thirteenth 
century, that it had considerably abated in the fourteenth, and still more 
so in the fifteenth, when it did not punish with confiscation of property, 

* This writer was, in 1789, and the two following years, secretary of the Spanish In- 
quisition ; but he was subsequently deprived of his office, and sent to do penance in a con- 
vent, for a breach of confidence ; it being discovered that he had communicated to some 
philosophers the secrets which he was sworn to keep. On the invasion of the French, he 
attached himself to the interests of Joseph Bonaparte, who placed at his service the ar- 
chives of the inquisition, many of which he burned — a fact which betrays an apprehen- 
sion that their examination would expose his misstatements. His history of the tribunal, 
although professedly composed from authentic documents, is a most malignant misrepre- 
sentation of its spirit and proceedings. It betrays a deadly hatred against the Catholic 
Church, the Pope, the religious orders, and the clergy generally, and a deep sympathy 
with the deistical clubs. 



356 



THE INQUISITION. 



much less with death. Puigblanch says that " in Italy, and in Rome it- 
self, the inquisition soon declined."* Voltaire states that " it languished 
in Aragon, as well as France, without functions, without order, and almost 
forgo tten/'-j- We may, then, regard it as a tribunal erected in a dis- 
organized state of society, to repress sectaries of a turbulent character, 
which, after having for a time manifested an awful energy, soon lost its ter- 
rific attributions. It gives us an idea of the fierce character of the age, 
which could have required or admitted so violent a remedy for the disorders 
committed against religion. 

1 2. — SPANISH INQUISITION. 

The modern tribunal of the inquisition may be denominated Spanish, 
because it has displayed its fearful power chiefly in the dominions of the 
King of Spain. At the solicitation of Ferdinand, Sixtus IV., in the year 
1478, authorized the erection of a tribunal of inquisition, throughout the 
Spanish dominions. The object which the monarch had in view was, 
doubtless, the security of his throne, which was endangered by the number 
of false Christians, professed converts from Judaism, or Mohammedanism, 
who secretly practised their former superstitions, and kept up treasonable 
correspondence with the Moors of Barbary. Puigblanch says : "It is, 
indeed, true, that the Moors of Granada had in agitation, several years be- 
fore, to deliver up the kingdom to the Barbary powers, or to the Grand 
Turk. "J Guizot is right in the opinion that Ferdinand was guided by 
motives of policy, and that he sought to maintain order by means of this 
vigilant and strict police. § Prescott partially admits it, although he main- 
tains that religious zeal was the inspiring motive of Isabella, who desired 
to provide for the integrity of Catholic faith. It is probable that both 
considerations influenced the royal counsels ; and certainly, regarded in a 
human point of view, it was a master-stroke of policy, well calculated to 
defeat the machinations of the secret enemies of the crown. 

The Spanish inquisition may be styled a royal tribunal, since the king 
appointed the supreme inquisitor from among the bishops, with the assent 
of the Pope, and otherwise exercised an influence equivalent, in many in- 
stances, to control. Voltaire, || Be Maistre,^f and Banke,** agree in recog- 
nising its royal character. Cardinal Baluffi observes : " It is notorious 
that the tribunals of Spain and Portugal were royal, and acted indepen- 
dently of Borne, and often in opposition to her wishes. "ft For this rea- 

* Inquisition Unmasked, p. 13. f Essai sur 1'Histoire, t. iv. ch. cxxxvi. 

J Inquisition Unmasked. 

§ "Elle fut d'abord plus politique que religieuse, et destinee a maintenir l'ordre plutot 
qu' a defendre la foi." Cours d'Histoire Moderne, t. v. lec. iL 
|| Essai sur 1'Histoire Generale, t. iv. ch. xxxvi. 
^[ Lettres sur l'lnquisition Espagnole,. let. i. p. 12. 
** Turkish and Spanish Empires. Spanish Empire, ch. ii. 
f f L'America una volta Spagnuola, vol. i. pref., vol. ii. p. 139. 



THE INQUISITION. 



357 



son Paul III. encouraged the Neapolitans in opposing its introduction 
among them by Charles V. ; and Pius IV. countenanced and sanctioned 
the resistance of the people of Milan, when Philip II. attempted to im- 
pose this yoke on them. The Popes oftentimes and loudly complained of 
the excessive rigor of the Spanish tribunal, and in many instances inter- 
posed, by authorizing the secret absolution of numbers of persons, and by 
absolving those who fled to their clemency from the national judges. They 
even removed several of the inquisitors for cruelty. Llorente is an unwill- 
ing witness to the humanity of the Pontiffs, which he unjustly ascribes to 
interested motives. " The result/' he says, " of the policy was favorable 
to humanity, since it preserved for those who implored the clemency of 
the Holy See, their honor and fortune, and those of their children."* 

An auto-da-fe, or act of faith,*}* was celebrated at Rome, before St. Peter's 
Church, under Alexander VI., in a manner not unworthy the earthly 
representative of Him who came to call sinners to repentance. Two hun- 
dred and fifty Spaniards, who fled from the terrors of the national Inquisi- 
tion to the clemency of the Pontiff, had avowed themselves guilty of re- 
lapsing into Jewish superstitions. Dressed in the penitential habit called 
san benito, on bended knees they supplicated to be reconciled with the 
Church. By the authority of the Pope, who from an elevated situation 
looked down benignly on his repentant countrymen, they were absolved 
from ecclesiastical censures. Two by two they then entered the great 
basilic of the prince of the apostles, and thence proceeded in the same 
manner to the church of St. Mary supra Minervam, where the officers of 
the Inquisition resided. Having given thanks to God for His boundless 
mercy, they laid aside the garments of humiliation, and exulted in their 
restoration to Christian privileges. J This surely was a scene at which the 
angels of heaven might rejoice. Such scenes occurred also in Spain. On 
12th February, 1486, 750 culprits underwent public penance in an auto- 
da-fe at Madrid, 900 on the 2d April of same year at Toledo, 750 on 1st 
May, and 950 on 1st December of same year. Of all these not one was 
executed. § What can be more glorious for the Popes than the confidence 
with which their authority was appealed to, which enabled Sixtus IV. to 
style the Holy See: " oppressorum ubique tutissimum refugium,"|| the 
certain refuge of the oppressed of every clime ? This Pontiff did not 
hesitate to plead with the king for those who might shrink from public 
exposure, but who would eagerly seek pardon, if their private humiliation 

* Histoire Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne, par D. Jean Antoine Llorente, traduite 
par Alexis Pellier, vol. i. ch. vii. art. iii. § viii. 

f It was so called because the penitents made a public profession of the faith. The 
punishment of the impenitent took place after the inquisitors had withdrawn; generally 
on the day following. 

j Llorente, vol. i. § xxxvi. 

§ See Llorente, quoted by Hefele in his late work, " Der Cardinal Ximenes," &c. 
Tubingen, 1844. 

|| Breve, 29 January, 1481. 



358 



THE INQUISITION. 



were accepted. " Since, ,r lie says, " shame of public correction sometimes 
drives those that are in error to wretched despair, so that they prefer to 
die in sin than live dishonored, we have judged it necessary to come to 
their relief, and conformably to the Gospel-teaching, by the clemency of 
the Apostolic See, to , bring back the sheep that had strayed, to the flock 
of the true Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ."* He added, that " cle- 
mency alone makes us equal to God, as far as human nature is capable," 
and he besought the king and queen, by the tender mercies of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, and exhorted them, in imitation of Him whose property it 
is to show mercy and to spare, to pardon the penitent, and give them full 
security in the enjoyment of their property. These are consoling evi- 
dences of the disposition of the Popes to procure the exercise of the royal 
clemency, in an institution that wears a terrific aspect for those who are 
obstinate in error. 

I 3. — MODE OF PROCEEDING. 

A veil of impenetrable secresy formerly shrouded the proceedings of 
the Inquisition, which gave occasion to surmises and imputations of the 
most odious kind ; but nothing can now be considered secret, since the 
most confidential instructions by which her officers were guided, have been 
made public, by the treachery of some of them, and all her archives have 
been explored by her enemies. Secresy was enjoined especially with a 
view to protect accusers or witnesses from the vengeance of the culprit, or 
his friends, and to preserve the character of those whose faith was called 
in question, until their heterodoxy should have been fully ascertained, as 
also to keep revolting crimes from public view. Concealment was not 
designed with a view. to injustice, for in no tribunal were greater precau- 
tions taken to arrive at a knowledge of the facts, which were recorded in 
the greatest detail. Many persons were employed in the examination and 
other proceedings, and powerful safeguards were placed in the dependence 
of local tribunals on the supreme Council. Before an arrest could take 
place, if the local officers were not unanimous as to the sufficiency of the 
grounds for it, the Council of the Supreme, as it was styled, was consulted. 
All the officers were sworn to do justice, and to be strictly impartial, under 
penalty of ecclesiastical censure, in case they indulged malice. They 
were required, like jurors, to keep their minds unbiassed, and attend 
strictly to the evidence. Although the witnesses were not, at least in the 
early stages of the proceedings, confronted with the accused, or their 
names communicated to him, yet he was made acquainted with the nature 
of the charges and evidence, in a manner calculated to enable him to 
justify himself, if innocent. No aid was afforded him to conceal guilt, or 
defeat the searching power of the tribunal, but every thing was directed 
to elicit the truth. He was allowed the aid of counsel, with whom, how- 

* Breve, 2 Aug., 14S3. 



THE INQUISITION". 



359 



ever, he conferred in the presence of an inquisitor, because professional 
aid was given to direct him in a just defence, but not to enable him to 
evade the law by subterfuges, or artifices. He was interrogated on oath, 
as was formerly usual in all criminal tribunals, and thus put under the 
necessity of criminating himself; but he had an advantage allowed in no 
other tribunal, that his avowal of guilt, when accompanied by signs of 
repentance, exempted him from punishment, or secured a great mitigation 
of its rigor. Twice he could be absolved and set free, on satisfying his 
judges of his conversion to the truth, on which account mercy as well as 
justice was incribed on the banner of the Inquisition ; but after reiterated 
relapses they could no longer screen him from the penalties of the law. 

The use of the torture was common in all tribunals, at the time when 
the Inquisition was established : hence it should not be made a matter of 
special reproach, particularly by the admirers of the ancient Romans and 
Greeks, from whom it passed to the Christian courts. It was very rarely 
resorted to in this tribunal; and only in cases wherein either positive 
proof or strong presumptive evidence of guilt existed. In the edict of 
2d September, 1561, it was qualified as a dangerous means, to be employed 
only in extraordinary cases. It could not be used unless the local inqui- 
sitors were unanimous in decreeing it. In all cases of disagreement, the 
Council of the Supreme had to be consulted, whose sanction was not given 
unless after a canonical trial by twelve jurors.* The accused had the 
right of appeal to the Supreme Council, in case the local inquisitors were 
unanimous, who, however, might neglect the appeal, if it seemed to them 
wanton and groundless. Llorente acknowledges that the decisions of the 
Council were generally characterized by justice and clemency. He also 
confesses that the torture has long since been entirely abandoned, although 
the prosecuting attorney continued to demand its application, according to 
an ancient formulary, and sometimes every preparation was made to apply 
it, in order to intimidate the culprit into an avowal of the truth. f 

The treatment of the prisoners was humane : their ceils were lightsome 
and airy, and with ground attached to them for exercise ; not deep, damp 
dungeons, as novelists are wont to imagine. Chains were never used, 
unless to restrain some one who appeared bent on self-destruction. All 
this is testified by Llorente,J notwithstanding his desire to represent the 
institution in the worst possible light. Puigblanch is also compelled to 
acknowledge the attention which was paid to the comforts of the prisoners, 
some of whom were attended by their own domestics. § 

x\lthough the Inquisition left no means untried to discover the guilt of 
persons denounced to it as entertaining heretical sentiments, yet it had 
the strictest regard to truth and justice. It was a formidable tribunal, 
because it thoroughly sifted every charge and testimony : weighed every 

* Llorente, Histoire Critique, vol. ii. ch. xiv. art. iii. $ xv. 
f Ibidem, vol. i. ch. ix. art. vii. % Ibidem, art. iv. 

$ History of the Inquisition, 1. ii., ch. xviii. 



360 



THE INQUISITION. 



expression and act, and, without deference to rank, wealth, learning, or 
other qualifications, extended its searching power to all classes, penetrated 
the most secret recesses, and struck with its awful penalties all whom it found 
tainted with heresy. The meek vestals were reponsible for the hasty ex- 
pressions of confidential communication in their deep solitudes — the learned 
professors had to answer at its bar for the opinions delivered to their pupils 
— the fervid preachers, whose zeal won multitudes to the faith, were called 
on to explain some inaccuracy of language in an extemporaneous burst of 
eloquence : and even Spain's own primate, Carranza, was its prisoner, and 
almost its victim. The holiest men could not entirely escape unscathed. 
St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. John of God, St. Joseph Calasanctius, John 
D'Avila, and many others most sound in faith, fell under suspicion. Had 
it only watched with jealousy over the integrity of doctrine, and, with the 
rod of ecclesiastical censures, driven from the temple the false and faith- 
less, it would have deserved the commendation of all the friends of reli- 
gion ; but I cannot contemplate without feelings of horror the flames 
which consumed the impenitent sectary. If humanity shudders at every 
execution, however necessary for public safety, the punishment inflicted 
in the name of religion on the most criminal fanatic awakes a still deeper 
feeling. It is not Voltaire alone that states, that "after the conquest of 
Granada, the Inquisition throughout all Spain displayed an activity and 

severity which never characterized the ordinary tribunals The 

Popes had erected the ordinary tribunals through policy, and the Spanish 
inquisitors stained them by their barbarity."* Cardinal Balufli avows 
that "their proceedings caused grief and shame to the Roman Inquisition, 
and excited the horror of all nations."f 

The number of sufferers cannot be ascertained, since many of the re- 
cords have been destroyed by Llorente and others, who prefer estimates to 
statistics, and, without any regard to facts, indulge the most extravagant 
calculations. If the estimate of two thousand mentioned by MarianaJ be 
correct, as the number of those who suffered during the administration 
of Torquemauda, it is indeed awful : but Llorente deceives -his readers 
when he leads them to suppose that these were executed in the city of 
Seville, in a single year, and makes it the basis of other estimates. Pres- 
cott discovers the trick, and yet exculpates its author from any wilful ex- 
aggeration, remarking, however, that "one might reasonably distrust 
Llorente' s tables, from the facility with which he receives the most im- 
probable estimates in other matters. "§ The multitude of the early suf- 
ferers is accounted for by the solicitude of the Spanish sovereigns for main- 
taining the national independence, of which the Judaizing Christians were 
the secret enemies. || Don Melchor de Macanaz, a statesman high in the 

* Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. iv. ch. cxxxvi. 

f L'Ameriea una volta Spagnuola, prefaz. J Historia de Espana, 1. xxiv. 

$ History of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. iii. ch. xxvi. part ii. n. 155. 
|| See Balmes, Protestantism and Catholicity, ch. xxxvi. 



THE INQUISITION. 



361 



court of Philip V., and who himself had suffered from the action of the 
Inquisition, subsequently defended it, and affirmed, that " with the ex- 
ception of very few cases intended to stop the progress of Lutheranism in 
the reign of Philip II., scarcely three persons had been sentenced/'* 
Puigblanch, who quotes him, denies the correctness of his assertion, and 
refers to the auto-da-fe under Charles II. The actual statistics given by 
Llorente present, indeed, sixteen sufferers on one occasion, in many others 
a much smaller number; but even three, or one, are too many not to ex- 
cite our horror. Philip V. did himself honor by refusing to assist at an 
exhibition of this kind, which, happily, was extremely rare under succeed- 
ing sovereigns. It is proper to observe, that sodomites were sometimes 
the subjects of this punishment, as in 1506, when ten of them were 
burned at Seville.")" Indeed many of those executed were convicted of 
crimes which by another form of process would have been capitally pu- 
nished in every civilized state, at least according to the legislation then 
prevailing. Since the year 1781, or 1783, no one has suffered death 
under the operation of the Spanish Inquisition. " Most of the sentences 
passed for the last fifty years," says Llorente, writing in the early part of this 
century, " were of this character," namely, obliging the culprits to abjure 
their errors in the hall of the Inquisition, "and we must do justice to the 
inquisitors of our days, by stating, that with the exception of very rare 
cases, they have followed a system of moderation which does them 
honor. "J 

The abolition of the Spanish Inquisition was decreed by Napoleon on 
the 4th December, 1808, the same day on which Madrid capitulated. 
Ferdinand VII. restored it on 21st July, 1814, but it has since entirely 
ceased. It is now only a matter of history. In justice to the illustrious 
nation in which its frightful power was displayed, we must take into con- 
sideration the motives which impelled the inquisitors, and reconciled the 
people to the scenes which were enacted. Jealousy of national indepen- 
dence in the early stages of the tribunal, and at a later period the fear 
of outbreaks on the part of the abettors of the new doctrines, prompted 
the inquisitors to take effectual measures for repressing innovation, and 
punishing apostasy. The civil wars of Germany and France convinced 
the Spanish sovereigns that for the safety of their dominions they must 
oppose the progress of the Reformers, on which account they wished the 
Inquisition to exert all its vigilance to discover the latent elements, which 
might suddenly explode and spread destruction. The number of those 
who suffered was doubtless small, if compared with the thousands upon 
thousands who perished in bloody strife in the other nations, where reli- 
gious feuds armed the citizens against each other. In the judgment of 
Paley, " the slave-trade destroys more in a year than the Inquisition does 



* Critical Defence of the Inquisition, quoted in Inquisition Unmasked, ch. v. 
f Llorente, Histoire Critique, vol. i. ch. x. art. iii. § i. 
\ Ibidem, ch. ix. art. xiii. $ v. 



3G2 



THE INQUISITION. 



in a hundred, or perhaps hath done since its foundation.''* If recrimi- 
nation were argument, we could point to the atrocities committed against 
Catholics, to force them to abandon the faith of their fathers : while the 
power of the Inquisition was employed only against those who proved 
recreant to the faith which they had once professed. 

§ 4.— ROMAN INQUISITION. 

The progress of the new opinions awakened the zeal of Paul HI., who, 
in the year 1543, organized a Council of Cardinals, under the title of the 
Congregation of the Supreme Inquisition. Six cardinals originally com- 
posed it, to whom two more were associated by St. Pius Y. They are 
strictly an ecclesiastical tribunal, charged with the affairs regarding the 
integrity of faith throughout the world. Hence doctrinal matters are re- 
ferred to them for examination, and the orthodoxy of clergymen especially, 
whose sentiments maybe called in question, is decided by their judgment. 
The Pope is Supreme Inquisitor, as the highest guardian of fairh. The 
tribunal has no temporal attributions out of the Roman States, and its 
action within them is very circumscribed, being little more than the in- 
junction of penitential observances, or, in some cases, imprisonment, for 
crimes against religion, in connection with the order of society. The pro- 
vidence of Grod permitted its archives to fall into the hands of Napoleon, 
who caused them to be transported to Paris; but nothing has ever been 
brought to light to its prejudice, which, as Cardinal Pacca well observes, 
shows that its proceedings were found unexceptionable. Viscount de 
Tournay, who was prefect of Rome under Napoleon, from 1810 to IS 1-3. 
bears testimony to " the moderation of its decisions, and the gentleness of 
its proceedings." "The size of the prisons," he adds, " and their healthi- 
ness and cleanliness, are a proof of the feelings of humanity of those who 
preside over them."'j" " The Inquisition," says Count de Maistre, " is of 
its nature good, mild, and conservative : such is the universal and indelible 
character of every ecclesiastical institution : you see it at Rome : you will 
see it wherever the church has influence. If the civil power, adopting 
this institution, thinks proper for its own safety to render it more severe, 
the church is not responsible."! 

The praise of moderation is justly awarded to the Roman tribunal, and 
the efforts of the Popes have been constantly directed to moderate the 
action of the Spanish Inquisition. Pontiffs, whose personal character was 
most humane, and whose piety was tender, such as Nicholas HI. and 
Pius V., before their elevation, exercised the office of Inquisitor, and used 
their best efforts to check the progress of heresy, by severity, tempered 

* Evidences of Christianity, vol. ii. p. 2. ch. vii. 

t Etudes Statistiques, vol. ii. p. 47. 

± Lettres sur lTnquisition Espagnole. let. L 



THE INQUISITION. 



863 



with mercy : yet, while theoretically intolerant, they were often found in 
practice more forbearing and indulgent than the loud advocates of uni- 
versal toleration. Balmes observes : " The Popes, armed with a tri- 
bunal of intolerance, have not spilled a drop of blood :* Protestants and phi- 
losophers have shed torrents. What advantage is it to the victim to hear 
his executioners proclaim toleration ? It is adding the bitterness of sarcasm 
to his punishment. The conduct of Rome in the use which she made of 
the Inquisition is the best apology of Catholicity against those who attempt 
to stigmatize her as barbarous and sanguinary. The Reformers most 
inconsistently advocated and practised intolerance, while they maintained 
as a Christian pri vilege the right of private judgment. Yet it is undeniable 
that the whole system is founded on the principle that heresy is a crime 
against society, punishable by the civil power. This was formerly held to 
be an axiom. Luther, as Limborch observes, " was, indeed, against putting 
heretics to death, but for almost all other punishments that the civil ma- 
gistrate could inflict, and, agreeably to this opinion, he persuaded the 
electors of Saxony not to tolerate in their dominions the followers of 
Zuinglius, in the opinion of the sacrament, because he esteemed the real 
presence an essential or fundamental article of faith. John Calvin was 
well known to be in principle and practice a persecutor. So entirely was 
he in the persecuting measures, that he wrote a treatise in defence of 
them, maintaining the lawfulness of putting heretics to death. And that 
by heretics he meant such who differed from himself, is evident from his treat- 
ment of Castellio and Servetus/'| His followers, above a century after- 
wards, embodied the principle in their confession of faith, in which they 
profess that u the civil magistrate hath authority, and it is his duty, to 
take order that all blasphemies and heresies be suppressed in proof of 
which references are given at the bottom of the page to texts of the old 
law, which prescribe confiscation of goods, banishment, imprisonment, and 
death. The National Covenant of the Kirk of Scotland, republished in 
Philadelphia in the year 1838, approves of the sanguinary laws against 
Catholics which so long disgraced the English statute-book, and contains 
an oath of the members of the League, to resist all errors and corruptions 
according to their vocation, to the uttermost of that power which God had 
put into their hands ! The implied avowal of such principles may well 
occasion surprise here, where the General and State Constitutions extend 
protection to all citizens, whatever their religious views may be, as long 
as they do not violate the peace of society or commit crimes against 
public morals. 

* Some few executions certainly took place, as that of Aonius Palearius in 1566, and 
Giordano Bruni in 1600, but other crimes generally concurred with heresy to provoke the 
punishment. 

f Protestantism and Catholicity compared, ch. xxxvi. 
\ History of the Inquisition, In trod., p. 62. 
£ Westminister Confession, ch. xxiii. 



364 



THE INQUISITION. 



Happily for mankind and for religion, the ages of coercion have passed 
away, and men are now left to worship God according to the dictates of 
their own conscience. None rejoice more than Catholics in this liberty, 
and none are less willing to see it abridged. Although we hold it to be 
necessary to believe all that God has revealed, and to obey all His com- 
mandments, we are pleased that the divine truths should be made known 
only by the preaching of the Gospel, and that obedience should be secured 
by the promises and threats, which are the sanctions of revelation. No 
principle of the Catholic Church obliges us to approve of coercion in mat- 
ters of religion. The legislation of the thirteenth century may have been 
rendered necessary by the ferocity of sectaries ; but now that civilization 
is general, and order and law prevail, we rejoice that the Church presents 
herself without any adventitious support, that the homage given her may 
be not only free, but unsuspected. It seems reserved for our age to be- 
hold new triumphs of religion, when men who prize highly their civil 
rights, and spurn restraint, shall yield to the multiplied evidences by 
which God has rendered His revelation worthy of belief. 



PART III. 



LITEEART AND MORAL INFLUENCE. 



CHAPTER I. 



Revelation enlightens the mind by the communication of supernatural 
knowledge, without extinguishing the lesser light of reason, or preventing 
the exercise of the natural faculties. It must, then, be useful to inquire 
how far the chief ministers of religion have contributed to the develop- 
ment of our natural powers by the cultivation of letters, science, and art, 
and what distinction they themselves have attained to, by their genius and 
research. The question of the primacy is, of course, entirely independent 
of these considerations ; but a prejudice is raised against the conclusion, 
as if it necessarily blunted the faculties of the human mind, and prevented 
their legitimate expansion. Ignorance and mental darkness are alleged to 
be the results of submission to an authority which undertakes to direct 
and control the mind, by reducing all men to a common standard of belief. 
If it shall appear that the Roman Pontiffs were generally men of a high 
order of intellect, who by their industry and talent acquired distinction, 
and who in their elevation honored and patronized learning, it will effec- 
tually silence those who clamor against them as enemies of mental pro- 
gress. Nothing, indeed, is clearer in history than that they were generally 
superior to their contemporaries in those endowments which best became 
their office, and that they exerted all their efforts to encourage even pro- 
fane literature, but still more sacred science. Although our Divine Re- 
deemer chose fishermen for His apostles, to manifest more clearly His wis- 
dom and power by the success of their preaching, yet He did not exclude 
the learned and wise from His ministry. Clement of Rome, one of the 
earliest successors of St. Peter, has left us indubitable evidence of learning 
and eloquence, in his powerful epistle to the Corinthians, which, seventy 
years after it was written, continued to be read publicly in the assemblies 
of the faithful, with veneration almost approaching that given to the in- 
spired writings. The letters of St. Cornelius to St. Cyprian are composed 
in a pure style, and with the dignity which became the chief Bishop. 
Pope Julius wrote with force and propriety, in vindication of St. Athana- 
sius. Damasus was distinguished for his learning and genius, and obtained 
praise for his poetical essays. The few relics that have been preserved of 
the writings of the Popes of the first four ages, give us a high opinion of 
their talents and acquirements, and make us regret the loss of the other 

367 



368 



PERSONAL ATTAINMENTS. 



many valuable letters which, were addressed by thein, on various occasions, 
to their colleagues, and to the faithful generally. 

It is unnecessary to state that the pontifical documents of the fifth age 
continued to be distinguished for perspicuity and dignity, without any 
affectation of meretricious ornament. Leo the Great, in his sermons, has 
left us proofs of superior eloquence ) the language of ancient Rome falling 
from his lips with something of the majesty and power with which Tully 
thundered in the forum. The energy of his diction, as well as the sanctity 
of his office, contributed to win to mercy the proud Attila, and had its 
share in the moral miracle, by which the triumphant barbarian was stopped 
suddenly in his march toward the Eternal city, which he had threatened to 
lay in ruins. Whoever reads the work of Gregory the Great, " on the 
Pastoral Office," must admire the simplicity and force of his language, the 
solidity of his judgment, and his acquaintance with the difficult science 
of governing men. Although he may not claim praise for profane erudi- 
tion, or elegance of style, he must be allowed to have possessed the know- 
ledge which best suited his station, and to have expressed his sentiments 
impressively. He is often represented, on the authority of a writer several 
centuries posterior, as having banished mathematicians from his palace, and 
consigned the Palatine library to the flames. This statement, even by the 
avowal of Gibbon,* deserves no confidence ; but, were it certain, it would 
not prove his hostility to learning, since astrologers formerly passed under 
the name of mathematicians ; and the multitude of superstitious works 
which, doubtless, filled the Palatine library, might be consumed without 
much detriment to the republic of letters. It is, however, beyond doubt 
that he reproved Dedier, Bishop of Vienne, for devoting himself to the 
teaching of grammar, by which he seems to mean the classics, and declared 
that the praises of Jupiter should not resound from a mouth consecrated 
to God ;f but this can only imply a disapproval of such studies when pur- 
sued to the prejudice of sacred learning, and of the important duties of 
the episcopate. John the Deacon, his biographer, in language that savors 
of hyperbole, describes the favor which he showed to learned men : " He 
was surrounded by the most erudite clergymen and religious monks. . . . 
Wisdom seemed at that time to have built for herself a temple at Home, 
and to have raised the Apostolic See on the arts, as on seven most precious 
columns. None of the attendants of the Pontiff, even of the humblest 
class, manifested any thing uncouth in his language or deportment ; but 
the Latin language, with the full Roman ornaments, was dominant in the 
palace. The various arts were flourishing/'^ Making all due allowance 
for the bias, or contracted views of the writer, which may have led him to 
overrate the state of literature at the Roman court, we may safely say that 
Gregory was no enemy of polite literature. § 



* Decline and Fall, vol. v. ch. xlvi. 
X Joan. diac. vit., 1. ii. n. xiii. 



f L. xi., ep. liv., ad Desider. ep. Vien. 
' $ See Tiraboschi stor. let., t. iii. 1. ii. c. ii. 



PERSONAL ATTAINMENTS. 



369 



In consequence of the inroads of the northern barbarians, learning 
rapidly declined in Italy and the south of Europe generally, in the follow- 
ing centuries, since letters could not be easily cultivated amid the din of 
arms. The Popes, however, continued to be respectable for their personal 
attainments, and to show special esteem for those who applied themselves 
to literature. Vitalian, being anxious to place a worthy prelate in the See 
of Canterbury, fixed his eyes on Adrian, who added to great knowledge 
of the divine Scriptures a familiar acquaintance with the Greek and Latin 
languages : but this humble monk pleaded bodily infirmity, to escape the 
burden. At his instance, Theodore, of Tarsus, was substituted in his 
stead, who was even still more distinguished than Adrian for sacred and 
profane learning. 

Pope Agatho, in the decline of the seventh century, sent bishops, priests, 
and others of inferior rank, as legates to the East, to assist at the sixth 
Council, with letters to the emperor, in which he said : " We do not send 
them as if to display their knowledge; for who can expect a perfect ac- 
quaintance with the Scriptures in men that live in the midst of barbarians, 
and with great distress of mind procure their daily subsistence by manual 
labour? In simplicity of heart and without hesitation, we hold the doc- 
trines which have been defined by our Apostolic predecessors, and by the 
five venerable Councils, and the faith handed down from our fathers ; and 
we ask of God, as a special grace, that we may keep the words of their 
definitions and their meaning unchanged, without adding to them, or 
taking from them any thing. We have furnished these legates with some 
texts of the fathers, whom this Apostolic See venerates, and with their 
books, which, if you wish, they will show you, to explain, not with the 
ornaments of worldly eloquence, of which they are destitute, but in the 
sincerity of that religion which we have learned from our infancy, the faith 
of this Apostolic Church, your spiritual mother."* This beautiful apology 
for the simple faith of those times should be remembered by those who 
ascribe the introduction of novelties to the ignorance of the Middle Ages. 
In the literary obscurity in which the successors of Peter found them- 
selves, they held fast to the tradition of their fathers, being careful to add 
nothing to it, and suffering nothing to be taken away. 

Notwithstanding the decline of secular learning, the Popes continued to 
be distinguished for the study of the sacred Scriptures, which is mentioned 
in commendation of Leo II., Benedict II., John VI., and John VII. The 
superior attainments of Eastern clergymen, when the West was overrun 
by barbarians, caused several of them successively to be elevated to the 
Apostolic See ; it being the fixed sentiment of all, that the ruler of the 
Church should be distinguished by the ornaments of literature, as well as 
by his virtues. Gregory III., a Syrian, and Zachary, a Greek, both of 



* Cone. Mansi, torn. xi. col. 235. Act. iv., Cone. Constant, iii. 
24 



370 



PERSONAL ATTAINMENTS. 



them well acquainted with the Greek and Latin languages, occupied the 
chair of Peter toward the middle of the eighth century. 

In the decline of the same century, Hadrian L, a Roman, governed the 
Church. His reply to the Caroline books affords evidence of much erudi- 
tion, and still greater reasoning powers. Leo III. has gained praise as a 
patron of learning. The visit of Charlemagne to Rome, during his pon- 
tificate, led the prince to form a high idea of the importance of letters. 
"The ruins of Rome/' as Voltaire avows, " furnished all things to the 
West, which was still in an embryo state. Both Alcuin the Englishman, 
who at that time enjoyed celebrity, and Peter of Pisa, who instructed 
Charlemagne in the rudiments of grammar, had studied at Rome/'* 

The genius and piety of Sergius II., when a boy, attracted the notice 
of Leo, who attended to his education, and thus prepared a worthy occu- 
pant for the Papal chair. St. Nicholas I. possessed learning and eloquence 
far beyond his contemporaries. Stephen VI. left after him a discourse 
abounding in Scriptural quotations, which were the food with which his 
soul was nourished, and which he distributed to his spiritual children. 

After a dark and dreary interval, in which ignorance and vice contended 
for the sway, Gerbert, a Frenchman, of great mechanical genius, and of 
much erudition, occupied the Holy See, at the close of the tenth century, 
under the name of Sylvester II. Hallam describes him as a man " who, 
by an uncommon quickness of parts, shone in very different provinces of 
learning, and was, beyond question, the most accomplished man of the 
dark ages." He " displays, in his epistles, a thorough acquaintance with 
the best Latin authors, and a taste for their excellencies. He writes with 
the feelings of Petrarch, but in a more auspicious period. "+ 

Alexander II., the pupil of the learned Lanfranc, did honor to his sta- 
tion by his learning, and showed his gratitude and esteem for his professor, 
by rising to embrace him, when, as Metropolitan of Canterbury, he pre- 
sented himself to do homage. Lest the bystanders should be astonished 
at this departure from the ordinary rules of court etiquette, the Pope ob- 
served that it was a scholar who greeted his master. 

The history of Nicholas Breakspere, an English boy, is full of interest. 
After his father had entered a monastery, the youth was wont to present 
himself at the convent-gate asking for bread; which led the father to 
chide him for neglecting to procure it by his industry. Stung by the 
reproach, he crossed the seas, and tried his fortune at a monastery of 
Regular Canons, in France, where, by the performance of every humble 
office, he earned his support, and by his pleasing manners gained favor. 
Being received among the inmates, he applied himself to sacred studies 
with great success, and attained to offices of much distinction j until, at 
length, he was raised to the Apostolic throne, under the title of Adrian IV. 



* Loix et usages du temps de Charlemagne, ch. xv. 
t Literature of Europe, ch. i. n. 78. 



PERSONAL ATTAINMENTS. 



371 



Alexander III. was professor of sacred Scripture in the University of 
Bologna, before his promotion to the pontifical chair. Of the learning 
and vigorous intellect of Innocent III., it were superfluous to speak, since 
his letters and other writings fully attest them. John XX. was styled 
" a general clerk/' because he was familiar with all the branches of learn- 
ing which were then taught. He attained to special distinction in the 
science of medicine. Boniface VIII. was the most eminent jurist of his 
age. 

The early career of Benedict XI. was not unlike that of Adrian IV. 
Being of humble parentage, it was not without difficulty that he procured 
the facilities of learning ) of which he soon availed himself to teach other 
youths the rudiments of education, that he might gain a subsistence, and 
have means of further advancement. He subsequently entered into the 
order of St. Dominic, and passed rapidly forward, until, by his perse- 
vering genius, he reached the goal of ecclesiastical preferment. 

The surname of Fournier, that is, Baker, was given to a French boy, 
whose father followed that trade. The laudable ambition of the son led 
him to Paris, where, at the University, he bore away from youths of nobler 
birth the rewards of literary merit. He afterward wore the tiara, under 
the name of Benedict XII. 

In the great schism which convulsed the West at the close of the four- 
teenth and beginning of the fifteenth century, a man of high reputation 
for learning and sanctity was chosen in an assembly of cardinals and bishops 
at Pisa, as the fittest to heal the breach. He assumed the name of Alex- 
ander V. His early history is that of a beggar-boy, in whose sparkling 
eye a Franciscan friar discovered the corruscations of genius. He proved 
worthy of his discerning patron by the success with which he cultivated 
sacred studies. 

Pius II. ranks high among his Italian countrymen as a scholar and his- 
torian. Taste, discernment, and laborious research, gained for him this 
distinction. Sixtus IV., who is said to have been the son of a fisherman, 
acquired a familiarity with the Greek language, under the instruction of 
the celebrated Bessarion. He had filled the chair of professor of phi- 
losophy in the most famous universities of Italy, before he wore the triple 
crown. 

It is unnecessary to enumerate the many learned Pontiffs who, during 
the last three centuries, have adorned the Holy See. They form a bright 
galaxy, such as illumines no other throne. The literary qualifications of 
the whole series of Popes are in a high degree respectable, especially when 
they are considered in reference to the times in which they lived : but 
their services to literature were not limited to their personal efforts. They 
were emphatically its patrons. 



CHAPTER II. 



I 1. — LIBRARIES. 

The diligence with which the Popes gathered books for the promotion 
of sacred studies, is truly admirable. From the number of quotations in 
the letter of Leo the Great to Leo Augustus, we perceive that there must 
have been a large collection of the writings of the fathers at his command. 
St. Hilary enriched the Lateran palace with two libraries. Stephen V., 
toward the close of the ninth century, gave books to the library of St. 
Paul's. From a letter of Lupus, Abbot of Ferrieres, to Benedict III., it 
is seen that Rome was considered a good place to obtain rare and valuable 
books. The abbot asks the Pope to send him a portion of the commentary 
of St. Jerom on the Prophet Jeremiah, which was wanting in the libraries 
of France ; as also the books of Cicero de Oratore, the twelve books of 
the institutes of Quintilian, and the commentary of Donatus on the come- 
dies of Terentius. From this request, it appears that the monks of the 
ninth century could relish the beauties of the classical authors, and that 
the Pontiff was thought likely to afford facilities for studying them. Ger- 
bert, who was afterward Pope, at the close of the following age, in a letter 
to a friend, assures him that the desire of books was great in ever}' city of 
Italy, and that a large number of persons were employed in transcribing. 
Victor III., when Abbot of 3Ionte Cassino, occupied his monks in this 
useful labor, and sought after rare books, to add them to his collection. 

The office of librarian of the Roman Church was, from very ancient 
times, one of great distinction, usually confided to a cardinal. The im- 
mense Vatican library is the result of the successive efforts of the Popes, 
who never abandoned the great work of forming this literary treasure. 
Nicholas V. so far surpassed all his predecessors in his successful endea- 
vors to collect manuscripts, that he is justly styled its founder. Sixtus 
IV. increased its treasures, and laid them open to the public. " At pre- 
sent the Vatican library contains 3686 Greek, 18,108 Latin, 726 Hebrew, 
787 Arabic, 65 Persian, 64 Turkish, 459 Syriac, 71 Ethiopian, 18 Scla- 
vonic, 22 Indian, 10 Chinese, 80 Coptic, 13 Armenian, and 2 Georgian 
manuscripts; amounting in all to 24,111, the finest collection in the 
world; which, with 25,000 duplicates, and 100,000 printed volumes, 
make a total of 149,494 volumes."* 



* Rome, Ancient and Modern, by Very Rev. Jeremiah Donavan, D.D., vol. ii. p. 491. 

372 



MEASURES TO PROMOTE LEARNING. 



373 



§ 2.— SCHOOLS. 

The selection of the learned Theodore for the archiepiscopal See of 
Canterbury, resulted in great literary advantages to England. As an elo- 
quent writer observes, " the palace of Archbishop Theodore, and the mo- 
nastery of Abbot Adrian became normal schools for all the kingdoms of 
the Heptarchy. The fire of emulation which they enkindled, soon illu- 
minated the entire land, extending its humanizing influence from the clois- 
ters to the fortress-castles of the nobility, and to the courts of the royal 
princes. Even the Anglo-Saxon ladies became inflamed with the general 
enthusiasm for letters ; and their accomplishments and classic taste may 
well excite the surprise, if not the envy, of their fair descendants of the 
present age. ' They conversed with their absent friends/ says Dr. Lin- 
gard, { in the language of ancient Rome ) and frequently exchanged the 
labors of the distaff and the needle (in which they excelled) for the more 
pleasing and more elegant beauties of the Latin poets/ "* 

When, in the middle of the eighth century, the lamp of learning burned 
dimly in Italy, Stephen III. was wont to assemble around him, in the 
Lateran palace, the clergy of Rome, to hold conferences with them on the 
Holy Scriptures, which he exhorted them to study, that they might be 
able to refute the sophisms of unbelievers. 

Eugene IT., in a Roman Council, held in the year 826, enacted several 
canons, which show his zeal to dissipate the ignorance which prevailed. 
Bishops were ordered to suspend from sacred functions, or, if necessary, 
to depose priests ignorant of their duty j and metropolitans were required 
to use similar severity toward their suffragans. Schools were to be opened 
in cathedral and parish churches, and wheresoever else they might be 
deemed necessary. " We have heard," says the Pontiff, " that in some 
places neither teachers are found, nor is any regard had to literary pur- 
suits : wherefore, in all episcopal residences, and among the people sub- 
ject to them, and in other places in which it may be necessary, let care 
and diligence be used by all means to appoint teachers and instructors who 
may assiduously teach letters and the liberal arts, and the holy doctrines, 
since the divine commandments are particularly manifested and declared in 
these things. "f When this enactment had been in a great measure de- 
feated by the general distaste for learning, Leo IV., in 853, contented 
himself with enjoining the study of the Scriptures and ecclesiastical 
office : " Although teachers of the liberal arts be usually scarce," he ob- 
serves in a Roman Council, "let there be at least a professor of the divine 



* "Rome as it was under Paganism, and as it became under the Popes." Very Rev. 
Dr. Miley, who is known to he the author, has since written a History of the States of 
the Church, over his proper signature. 

f Mansi, col. cone, t. siv. col. 1008, can. xxxiv. 



374 



MEASURES TO PROMOTE LEARNING. 



Scripture, and instructors in the office of the Church/'* There was a 
school of this kind in the Lateran palace, in which many who sat on St. 
Peter's chair received their education. 

St. Gregory VII., in a Roman synod held in 1078, charged bishops to 
see that schools be opened in the churches subject to their jurisdiction. 
The third General Council of Lateran, under Alexander III., in 1179, 
insists on the necessity of learning for bishops and priests, and orders the 
poor to be instructed, for which purpose a master must be employed in 
each cathedral church, to teach them gratuitously; it desires the same to 
be done in monasteries and other churches. No fee is to be received for 
license to teach, which must be granted on demand to every person who 
is duly qualified. In cathedrals, a divine was to be employed in instruct- 
ing the younger clergy in sacred Scripture. In the fourth Council of 
Lateran, held in 1215, by Innocent III., it was decreed that each bishop, 
with the concurrence of the chief clergy, should provide a Latin teacher 
for the cathedral. The same was to be done in all churches that possessed 
sufficient income to support the burden. The Scriptures were to be 
expounded to the clergy and laity by a divine devoted to this task. 
These various measures, decreed from time to time, and enforced with 
greater or less success, are unequivocal evidences of the value which 
the Popes always attached to learning, especially to the study of the 
Scriptures. 

In those ages, throughout all Christian nations, the Pope was considered 
competent to bestow literary privileges, since civil governments concerned 
themselves only with matters regarding the public peace and order. 
Hence all the universities of Spain and France, as well as Italy, relied on 
some papal document for their prerogatives. One of the chief concessions 
was, that a student might enjoy the revenues of a Church benefice, 
without residing at the place where it was situated, when his absence was 
occasioned by his studies at a University. Another exempted students 
from the ordinary tribunals, and assigned special judges for their trial, in 
case they were accused of misconduct. Thousands crowded the halls of 
the University of Paris, encouraged by the advantages which it offered, 
through the favor of the Pontiffs. The Universities of Tolosa and Valentia, 
in Spain, proudly traced their privileges to the same source ; and Lisbon 
acknowledged herself indebted for her university to pontifical munificence. 
Italy, at that period, wore a literary crown studded with many bright 
gems. The ancient schools of Pisa, in which theology and canon law 
were taught in 903, rose to the dignity of a university. Eome, Milan, 
Pavia, and Florence, each had a similar institution. At Fermo, a univer- 
sity was opened by Boniface VIII. ) at Perugia by Clement V. ; and at 
Ferrara by the ninth Boniface. The University of Naples had the honor 



* Mansi. col. cone, t. xiv. col. 1014. 



MEASURES TO PROMOTE LEARNING. 



375 



of the early training of St. Thomas Aquinas, who completed his course 
at Paris. Padua for a time rivalled Bologna, which, with her celebrated 
professors, and ten thousand scholars, enjoyed, for the most part, an un- 
disputed precedency in the republic of letters. The multiplication of 
literary institutions, filled with crowds of eager students, is an incontro- 
vertible proof of a high esteem of learning, which was plainly the result 
of the reiterated efforts of successive Pontiffs. The light which long 
glimmered, and seemed almost extinct, was kindled anew by their breath, 
until it grew into a flame, illumining the nations that long had sat in 
darkness. 



CHAPTER III. 



To some it has appeared that the universities were ill calculated to pro- 
mote solid learning, and served only for the vain subtleties of scholastic 
disputation. The fact, however, is, that they rendered immense service 
to religion, and exercised the reasoning faculties in such a manner as to 
prepare the human mind for the deeper investigations of after times, when 
the treasures of antiquity were laid open. 

Divinity was not originally studied in most of the universities, Paris 
for a long time having enjoyed the special privilege of public lectures on 
that subject. The youth of Italy did not hesitate to cross the Alps to 
hear the far-famed professors of that city descant on the sentences of 
Peter Lombard, or, at a later period, explain the summary of the Angelic 
Doctor. Bologna, however, and other universities, were afterward al- 
lowed to teach the same sublime science, which Clement VI. aptly desig- 
nates, studium sacrae paginse, the study of sacred Scripture. The holy 
volume was expounded to eager youth by men, who, although not skilled 
in the original languages, or familiar with classic lore, were, nevertheless, 
competent to teach accurately the revealed doctrines, and to guard against 
theological errors. Whoever will take the pains to peruse the works of 
St. Thomas Aquinas, who nourished in the middle of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, will not consider the scholastic study of divinity a mere exercise of 
vain dialectics. The whole counsel of Grod, as manifested and developed in 
the teaching of the Church, is there declared and sustained, chiefly by 
the authority of sacred Scripture, although occasionally illustrated by 
some testimony of ancient Christian writers. Reason herself is intro- 
duced as the handmaid of revelation. The difficulties which the pride of 
man presents to the belief of divine truth, are dissipated by a powerful 
logic, grounded on divine authority. The searching mind of the Angelic 
Doctor ventured far beyond the positive doctrine of the Church, and in- 
dulged in probable conjectures, which some may brand as idle speculations, 
but which certainly are not less profitable than many of the disquisitions 
of men of science in later times. It was his privilege to conceive, almost 
with the clearness of intuition, the whole revealed doctrine, and to com- 
prehend and combine the sacred oracles, and the teachings of the ancient 
fathers, but especially to fix his gaze on the Divinity with a steadiness 
scarcely before granted to an uninspired mortal. In the language of the 
376 



MEDIEVAL STUDIES. 



377 



schools, lie was as an angel admitted to view the glory of the Deity, and 
appointed to unfold to men His counsels. Recent Anglican writers have 
termed him " the great prophet of the Church," since his mind seems to 
have grasped in its vision the secrets of futurity, namely, the objections 
which sectaries in after ages would make to the divine doctrines. The 
Popes, in commending his works, showed not only their zeal for accurate 
and precise views of doctrine, but their just appreciation of the admirable 
method and deep reasoning of this most eminent theologian. " The 
Summa Theologise," says a writer in the British Critic, " is a mighty syn- 
thesis, in which Catholic doctrine is bound together in one consistent 
whole." "It was reserved for St. Thomas Aquinas to survey at one 
glance the whole of Christian truth as it had been developed in former 
ages, and to point out the relative bearings of the mighty mysteries to 
each other."* 

I cannot vindicate with the same confidence the homage rendered to 
Aristotle by the schools of the Middle Ages ; yet, although blind defer- 
ence for the dicta of the Stagyrite may have prevented the advancement 
of science, it cannot be thought that the study of his works, which are 
learned and profound, was in itself favorable to mental inertness. Urban 
IV. deserved well of mankind for laboring to revive philosophy, which for 
ages had been neglected. He enjoined on St. Thomas Aquinas to write 
commentaries on Aristotle, that the student of his works might not imbibe 
any error contrary to the doctrine of the sublime Master of Christians. 
The schools that admitted his authority, corrected his ethics by the maxims 
of the Gospel, and failed not to adore the Christian mysteries, notwith- 
standing the abstruseness or erroneousness of his metaphysical views. His 
sway, however, was that of an absolute monarch, in the realms of natural 
science. He was heard as an oracle, when he should only have been looked 
on as a guide ; and the student, who should have sought to penetrate further 
into the recesses of nature, fancied he had reached the goal when he had 
understood what Aristotle had revealed of her secrets. 

It might be a matter of just exultation, that this excessive regard for 
individual authority has given place to a spirit of inquiry, which assumes 
nothing, and rests only on demonstration and experience, had not skepti- 
cism succeeded faith • the temerity of man extending the philosophic 
doubt to the very axioms of natural right, and to mysteries divinely re- 
vealed. A heathenish system, which abstracts from the fact that God has 
spoken, and, with the glimmering light of reason, scrutinizes the depths 
of His nature and works, has taken the place of the old philosophy; and 
men fancy themselves enlightened and intellectual, in proportion as they 
are destitute of the certain conviction of revealed truth. The whole 
structure of religion is placed by many on the sandy foundation of natural 
reason, unassisted and unenlightened. 



* Number lxv., p. 110, 111. 



378 



MEDI2EVAL STUDIES. 



Whatever may be thought of the philosophy of the Middle Ages, we 
should not forget that the great science of legislation, both ecclesiastical 
and civil, was then effectually cultivated and promoted. The Popes, by 
their decrees on various cases submitted to their judgment, and the Coun- 
cils of Bishops, combining their wisdom to remedy prevailing disorders 
and promote piety, had gradually formed a vast code of laws, of which 
collections had been made by various persons in the East and West ; but 
it was reserved for Gratian, a Benedictine monk, in the middle of the 
twelfth century, to classify them, and adapt them to the use of students. 
This decree of Gratian , as the collection of canons has been rather 
strangely styled, was designed especially for the University of Bologna, to 
which the Popes likewise were thenceforward accustomed to address the 
subsequent collections. Those only who are unacquainted with the Canon 
Law can speak disparagingly of it. The Scripture is its foundation ; the 
fathers of the Church have furnished many of its axioms; and its rules 
are the fruits of the experience of ages. It combines persuasion with au- 
thority, equity with law, and a due regard for forms with an inviolable 
respect for justice and right. It throws its shield over the humblest in- 
dividuals, and bears aloft its mace to awe the proud. It tempers the 
exercise of power by the spirit of charity, sustains dignity without foster- 
ing pride ; and, in the great variety of orders and offices throughout the 
Universal Church, presents a compact hierarchy, bound together by mys- 
terious ties in indivisible unity. By encouraging this study, it is manifest 
that the Popes proved themselves the friends of order and justice, and took 
from the exercise of ecclesiastical authority all appearance of arbitrary 
power. 

In order to promote true liberty, which needs the salutary restraint of 
law, the Popes promoted the study of civil jurisprudence. The founda- 
tions of social order were laid in various enactments directed to maintain 
natural rights, and to restrain violence, by the censures of the Church : 
but it was their earnest desire to see the social fabric rise in just propor- 
tions, on the pillars of law; for which end they exerted their utmost influ- 
ence to introduce everywhere its study. The civil law, as we are wont to 
designate the code used in the Boman empire, had been neglected and 
forgotten during the tumult and wars consequent on its dissolution, and 
usages derived from barbarian ancestors were the only rules of conduct 
acknowledged by the races that were spread over the greater part of 
southern Europe. It was revived in the Italian universities, especially in 
Bologna, where professors of great celebrity unravelled its intricacies with 
untiring ingenuity. Hallain observes : " The love of equal liberty and 
just laws in the Italian cities, rendered the profession of jurisprudence ex- 
ceedingly honorable j the doctors of Bologna and other universities were 
frequently called to the office of podesta, or criminal judge, in those small 
republics ; in Bologna itself they were officially members of the smaller or 
secret council ; and their opinions, which they did not render gratuitously, 



MEDIAEVAL STUDIES. 



379 



were sought with the respect that had been shown at Rome to their ancient 
masters of the age of Severus."* 

Innocent IV., although he discountenanced the study of the civil law 
by clergymen, as likely to occasion the neglect of the more necessary 
qualifications for the sacred ministry, directed schools of law to be opened 
at Rome, and founded at Placentia a university, in which it was specially 
taught. Padua also was for some time the successful rival of Bologna in 
this science. The Cesarean code is acknowledged to contain the most just 
arrangement of the family and social relations ; and if in any case its pro- 
visions were found severe, the mild spirit of the Church tempered its rigor, 
in the name of equity. Thus the confusion necessarily arising from the 
undefined customs of nations emerging from barbarism was remedied ; 
and, instead of a variety of laws, usages, and tribunals, which threatened 
society with anarchy, the beauty and order of a comprehensive code were 
exemplified in all the relations of life. 

It was the wish and endeavor of several Popes to introduce into the 
universities the study of the Greek and Oriental languages. Long before 
the establishment of these institutions, they had labored to promote the 
study of Greek, in order more effectually to knit together the two great 
portions of the Church. Paul I., about the year 766, erected a monastery 
for monks of the Greek rite. Stephen IV., in 816, founded for them the 
monastery of St. Praxedes j and Leo IV. introduced them into the monas- 
tery of St. Stephen. Mills bears testimony to the efforts of Honorius IV., 
after the example of his predecessors, to promote the study of the Oriental 
tongues : " In the year 1285, Pope Honorius IV., in his design to convert 
the Saracens to Christianity, wished to establish schools at Paris, for the 
tuition of people in the Arabic and other Oriental languages, agreeably to 
the intentions of his predecessors. The Council of Vienne, in 1312, 
recommended the conversion of the infidels, and the re-establishment of 
schools, as the way to recover the Holy Land. It was accordingly ordered 
that there should be professors of the Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic 
tongues in Rome, Paris, Oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca; and that the 
learned should translate into Latin the best Arabic books."f Mills, in- 
deed, states that these measures were not effectually followed up ) but this 
detracts nothing from the merit of the Popes who devised them, and who, 
but for the difficulties of the times, would have urged their execution. 
u The Roman Pontiffs," as Tiraboschi observes, " used every possible 
means to rescue men from ignorance, and probably would have done much 
more, had the sad state of the times allowed it ; which was the cause of 
their not deriving that abundant fruit from their efforts which in better 
times they might have reaped." J 



* Hallam, Literature of Europe, ch. i. n. 68. 

f History of the Crusades, ch. xv. p. 211. Note. 

J Storia della Letteratura Italiana, t. iv. 1. i. p. 36. 



380 



MEDIAEVAL STUDIES. 



The partial revival of learniDg, as well as the great advances toward 
social order, in the eleventh and succeeding centuries, may be traced to 
the efforts of the Popes, who sought, in every possible way, to establish 
law and order, and to promote every study that could improve the mind. 
This is virtually admitted by Hallam, who ascribes to Italy generally this 
intellectual and social renovation, which was in reality the work of the 
, Pontiffs. " It may be said with some truth," he remarks, " that Italy 
supplied the fire, from which other nations in this first, as afterward in the 
second era of the revival of letters, lighted their own torches. Lanfranc, 
Anselm, Peter Lombard, the founder of systematic theology, in the twelfth 
century • Irnerius, the restorer of jurisprudence ; Gratian, the author of 
the first compilation of canon law; the school of Salerno, that guided 
medical art in all countries : the first great work that makes an epoch in 
anatomy, — are as truly and exclusively the boast of Italy, as the restora- 
tion of Greek literature, and of classical taste in the fifteenth century."* 
The same writer justly denies that in the thirteenth century learning de- 
clined : " In a general view," he says, " the thirteenth century was an age 
of activity and ardor, though not in every respect the best directed. The 
fertility of the modern languages in versification ; the creation, we may 
almost say, of Italian and English in this period ; the great concourse of 
students to the universities ; the acute, and sometimes profound, reasoning 
of the scholastic philosophy, which was now in its most palmy state ; the 
accumulation of knowledge, whether derived from original research or from 
Arabian sources of information, which we find in the geometers, the phy- 
sicians, the natural philosophers of Europe ; are sufficient to repel the 
charge of having fallen back, or even remained altogether stationary, in 
comparison with the preceding century."f Of the period between 1250 
and 1494, he says : ." It is an age in many respects highly brilliant ; the 
age of poetry and letters, of art, and of continual improvement. "J 

" It is a most childish fancy, certainly," observes Dr. Nevin, "to suppose 
that the revival of learning began properly with the sixteenth century. It 
dates at least from the eleventh ; and there is abundance of evidence that 
the progress made between that and the age of the Reformation was quite 
as real and important as any that has taken place since. All sorts of 
learning were in active exercise before Protestantism came in, to share 
their credit with the Roman Church. So in the case of criticism, contro- 
versy, and the learned languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew."§ 



* Literature of Europe, ch. i. n. 81, vol. i. f Literature of Europe, ch. i. n. 86. 

X Middle Ages, ch. iii. part ii. § "Modern Civilization." M. R., March, 1851. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Ijinbal af Jfttttti. 

" Dante and Petrarch/' Hallam observes, " are, as it were, the morn- 
ing stars of our modern literature." The taste of the Italians for the su- 
blime inspirations of poetry was manifested on the appearance of the 
Divina Commedia, which was soon adopted as a text-book in the Italian 
universities ; men of station and age, as well as the young, crowding the 
halls where learned professors revealed the deep thoughts of the divine 
poet. The same ardor was manifested in the following century. Four 
hundred hearers, most of them of high station and senatorial rank, at- 
tended the class of Francis Filelfo at Florence, where he explained Dante, 
in the time of Eugene IV., who invited him to his court, to reward his 
learning and genius. The eagerness of the Pontiff to honor the professor 
proves his liberal encouragement of the study, although Dante had treated 
some of his predecessors with severity. Nicholas V., on hearing of the 
arrival of Filelfo at Rome, on his way to Naples, sent for him, and pressed 
him to accept a present of five hundred ducats for the expenses of his 
journey. a Petrarch," says Hallam, " formed a school of poetry, which, 
though no disciple comparable to himself came out of it, gave a character 
to the taste of his country. He gave purity, elegance, and even stability 
to the Italian language — and none have denied him the honor of having 
restored a true feeling of classical antiquity in Italy, and consequently in 
Europe."* Such was the man on whom the laurel crown was bestowed 
in the Eoman capitol in the year 1341. Clement VI. and Urban V. gave 
him marks of their favour, and invited him to Avignon. Gregory XI. 
offered him, in his declining age, whatever could relieve or solace him. 
This is the more remarkable, as the poet was known to have satirized the 
papal court. It proves that genius had charms for the Popes, which made 
them view its aberrations with indulgence. 

The favor shown to poets is manifest from many facts. Nicholas V., 
with his own hands, placed the poet's crown on Benedict of Cesena ; and 
Callistus III., in a Brief, designated Nicholas Perotti " poet laureat," and 
his secretary. The union of the office of papal secretary with the profes- 
sion of poet became a matter so usual, that poetry seemed to be a title, or 
qualification, for this honorable employment. Music gained the ear of the 



* Literature of Europe, ch. i. n. 46. 



381 



382 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



Popes even in an unrefined age j since Guy of Arezzo, in the eleventh 
century, had scarcely invented the gamut, when John XIX. insisted that 
he should come to Rome to teach the clergy. Among the endowments 
of various Popes their knowledge of sacred music is mentioned, which, 
whatever may be thought of its imperfection, denotes the taste and dili- 
gence of those who cultivated it. 

History was always deemed an important study. It exercised the dili- 
gence of ecclesiastics, even when, from the want of documents and critical 
light, they were unable to perform the task with success. The chroniclers 
of the Middle Ages are not without their claims on our gratitude, for hav- 
ing recorded the events of their own times, and preserved much of the 
history of the past, although sometimes disfigured by fables. As soon as 
the light of literature beamed anew on the world, the Popes drew around 
them men of deep research and accurate judgment, who labored to recover 
the hidden treasures of past ages, and rescue them from the superincum- 
bent mass of fiction. The libraries were thrown open to their researches ; 
coins, medals, vases, inscriptions, statues, and other monuments of anti- 
quity, were dug from the earth, or gathered from remote regions, at the 
expense of the Pontiffs, and every encouragement was given to the curious 
and diligent student, in his efforts to retrace the progress of the human 
race, and to discover the manners and customs, laws and polity of the dif- 
ferent nations of antiquity. Eugene IV. gave to Cyriacus of Ancona, in 
his researches, every facility which the most unbounded munificence could 
afford. Biondo Flavio, the historian, was secretary of the same Pontiff, 
and of three of his successors. " His long residence at Rome inspired 
him with the desire, and gave him the opportunity of describing her im- 
perial ruins. In a work, dedicated to Eugenius IV., who died in 1447, 
but not printed till .1471, entitled ' Romas Instaurataa libri tres/ he de- 
scribes, examines, and explains, by the testimony of ancient authors, the 
numerous monuments of Rome. In another, 'Romas Triumphantis libri 
decern,' printed about 1472, he treats of the government, laws, religion, 
ceremonies, military discipline, and other antiquities of the republic."* 
Annius of Viterbo, who, although charged with literary imposture, must 
be acknowledged to have shed much light on the Egyptian, Chaldean, and 
Tuscan antiquities, was made Master of the sacred Palace, by Alexander 
VI., who, by this and other acts, proved that he was not incapable of ap- 
preciating literary merit. Pius II. led the way in the reform of historical 
narrative ; and in the history of his own times gave proof of great discern- 
ment, deep reflection, and elegant taste. 

Eloquence and Belles Lettres were cultivated in the fifteenth century, 
under the patronage of the Popes, who invited to their court the most 
eminent professors. George of Trebizond was called to Rome by Eugene 
IV. ) and Laurentius Valla received the like honorable invitation from 



* Hallam, Literature of Europe,- 1471-1480, vol. i. ch. iii. n. 48. 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



383 



Nicholas V. Cardinals and other illustrious strangers thronged the halls 
of the University of Florence, to hear Charles Marsuppini descant on the 
art of speaking. Herniolaus Barbaro, John Pico de la Mirandola, with 
others, bright ornaments of this age, prove that the successful cultivation 
of Belles Lettres was not the peculiar privilege of the sixteenth century. 
" The Pope nominated Hermolaus to the greatest post in the Venetian 
Church, the patriarchate of Aquileja."* 

The revival of letters was by more than a hundred years anterior to the 
so-called Eeformation, which was highly injurious to literature. The 
Tuscans, by their innate genius, had succeeded in cultivating learning 
long before the Greeks sought refuge in Italy. " Florence was already 
another Athens, and among the orators that came on the part of the vari- 
ous cities of Italy to address Boniface VIII., on his elevation, eighteen 
were Florentines. We see, then, that the revival of the arts is not owing 
to the refugees from Constantinople. The Greeks could teach only Greek 
to the Italians. "f "It is probable," says Hallam, " that both the princi- 
ples of this great founder of the Eeformation, (Luther,) and the natural 
tendency of so intense an application to theological controversy, checked 
for a time the progress of philological and philosophical literature on this 
side of the Alps. "J " Erasmus, after he had become exasperated with 
the Beformers, repeatedly charges them with ruining literature." § 

John Malpaghino, who, toward the end of the fourteenth century, taught 
Latin at Padua and Florence, and Gasparin of Barziza, his disciple, gave 
the example of a pure and elegant style. "This," says Hallam, "is the 
proper era of the revival of letters, and nearly coincides with the begin- 
ning of the fifteenth century." || "It was from Italy that the light of 
philological learning spread over Europe. "^f Petrarch, - who had loved 
Malpaghino as a son, had applied himself for a time to Greek, but not 
quite successfully. Boccaccio had succeeded somewhat better in that study, 
which in the following century became so general, that scarcely an aspirant 
to the reputation of learning was unacquainted with this language. What- 
ever may have been the causes which concurred to produce the enthusiasm 
with which it was pursued, the Popes deserve praise for having encouraged 
it, by the honors which they bestowed on learned Greeks, and on others 
who cultivated the language with success. Chrysoloras, after having dis- 
charged the high office of ambassador from the Greek emperor to the 
Western powers, yielded to the solicitations of many to become professor 
of Greek at Florence, and afterward in various other Italian universities. 
He was chosen by John XXII. as his ambassador to the Council of Con- 
stance. The elevation of Bessarion to the purple, may be regarded as a 
reward for his zeal in accomplishing the reunion of the Greeks with the 

* Hallam, Literature of Europe, 1471-1480, vol. i. ch. iii. n. 116. ; 
-f- Essai sur l'Histoire t. ii. ch. lxxviii. 

% Hallam, Literature of Europe, 1471-1480, vol. i. ch. iv. n. 61. § Ibid. Note. 
|j Ibid., vol. i. ch. i. n. 94. § Ibid., n. 24. 



384 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



Latins at Florence ; but his solid and elegant learning greatly strength- 
ened his claims to this honorable distinction. His presence at Rome, 
where, in 1470, he published a work in defence of the Platonic philosophy, 
became an incentive to Greek studies. Aurispa, a Sicilian, who was emi- 
nent in Greek literature, was made secretary of Eugenius IV. ; and Ma- 
netti, a Florentine, who spoke Greek and Hebrew with almost the same 
facility as his vernacular tongue, was welcomed to Rome, raised to high 
honors, and provided with a pension of five hundred golden crowns. 
Angelo Puliziano, the successful imitator of the Greek and Latin classics, 
was honored by Innocent VIII. with a letter full of esteem and affection, 
and rewarded with a gift of two hundred crowns for his translation of 
Herodian. Domizio Calderino, when only twenty-four years of age, was 
invited by Paul II. to Rome to profess Greek, in which he had already 
attained eminence ; and was subsequently promoted to the office of secre- 
tary by Sixtus IV. It were endless to enumerate instances of papal pa- 
tronage, by which this study was effectually fostered ; but I shall note a 
fact which shows at once the favor of the Popes, and the success with 
which the study was pursued. Ippolita Sforza, daughter of the Duke of 
3Iilan, and afterward wife of the King of Naples, delivered, in 1456, a Greek 
oration at Mantua, in the presence of Pius II. This accomplished lady 
was the representative of a considerable class, who united with the usual 
graces of the sex a thirst for classic literature, and acquired an astonish- 
ing familiarity with the works of the Greek authors. The Pontiff was 
fully capable of appreciating such literary excellence. 

Hallam, after having traced in outline the form of European literature, 
as it existed in the Middle Ages, and in the first forty years of the fifteenth 
century, observes: "The result must be to convince us of our great obli- 
gations to Italy for her renewal of classical learning. What might have 
been the intellectual progress of Europe if she never had gone back to the 
fountains of Greek and Roman genius, it is impossible to determine ; cer- 
tainly nothing in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries gave prospect of a 
very abundant harvest. It would be difficult to find any man of high re- 
putation in modern times, who has not reaped benefit, directly or through 
others, from the revival of ancient learning. We have the greatest reason 
to doubt whether, without the Italians of these ages, it would ever have 
occurred."* 

It cannot be doubted that the Popes eminently deserve this praise. 
Hallam himself testifies that Eugenius IV. patronized learning; and he 
does ample justice to the claims of Nicholas V. on the gratitude of the 
literary world. "Letters," he says, "had no patron so important as 
Nicholas V., (Thomas of Sarzana,) who became Pope in 1447; nor has 
any later occupant of that chair, without excepting Leo X., deserved equal 
praise as an encourager of learning. Nicholas founded the Vatican library, 



* Literature of Europe, ch. ii. n. 49. 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



385 



and left it, at his death, in 1455, enriched with five thousand volumes ; a 
treasure far exceeding that of any other collection in Europe. Every 
scholar who needed maintenance, which was of course the common case, 
found it at the court of Rome."* The munificence of the Pontiff amply 
rewarded the literary labors of the many whom he drew around him. Five 
hundred golden crowns were bestowed by him on Valla for his translation 
of Thucydides ; fifteen hundred crowns were the recompense of Guarino 
for his version of the first ten books of the geography of Strabo. Manu- 
scripts were purchased at high prices \ and honor and wealth were held 
forth to all who chose to enrich the republic of letters, by the contribution 
of rare books, or successful imitations of the ancients. 

Alexander VI. deserved well of literature, for establishing, on a large 
scale, the Roman gymnasium, which Eugene IV. had commenced, and 
promoting and honoring learned men. Julius II. was an active patron of 
painting and the fine arts : but the boundless munificence of Leo X. to 
the lovers of the arts, votaries of the Muses, and cultivators of polite 
literature, eclipsed all that his predecessors had done, and won for him the 
admiration of succeeding ages. I leave to others to describe the reunion 
of men of genius at the celebrated Papal suppers, where the feast of in- 
tellect far surpassed the richness of the banquet, and fancy soared aloft to 
delight the guests by her sublime inspirations. The academies of literary 
men, so frequent in "Leo's golden reign," on the banks of the Tiber, in 
the circus maximus, or in some of the magnificent villas which adorn the 
eternal city, brought to mind the groves of the Grecian Academus, where 
Plato descanted on divine and human things, and the Lyceum, where 
Aristotle perambulated, while delivering his sublime lessons. The illu- 
minated halls, in which the gravest prelates were seen amid the fascinated 
crowds, listening to the poet of Arezzo, showed the keen sensibility of the 
Italian mind to the beauties of imagination. Vida, who sang in strains 
not unlike those of Virgil, and Ariosto, the prince of romantic poets, 
charmed Leo and the age by the sublime and varied conceptions of their 
minds. Bembo and Sadolet, his secretaries, in the Papal documents re- 
vived the chaste elegance of the Augustan age. The artist who dug from 
the earth some statue, the work of an ancient master, — the humanist who 
recovered a manuscript of a classic author, — all the literati and virtuosi 
of every class received from the Pontiff rewards proportioned to their 
merit and worthy of his munificence. But it were wrong to suppose that 
the patronage of elegant literature was peculiar to Leo, since the praise 
must be shared with his predecessors, and with those who succeeded him. 
"Italy," says Hallam, "the genial soil where the literature of antiquity 
had been first cultivated, still retained her superiority in the fine percep- 
tion of its beauties, and in the power of retracing them by spirited imita- 
tion. It was the land of taste and sensibility; never, surely, more so 



* Literature of Europe, vol. i. ch. iii. n. 2. 
25 



386 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



than in the age of Raffaelle as well as Ariosto. If the successors of Leo 
X. did not attain so splendid a name, they were, perhaps, after the short 
reign of Adrian VI. — which, if we may believe the Italian writers, seemed 
to threaten an absolute return of barbarism — not less munificent or sedu- 
lous in encouraging polite and useful letters."* 

Throughout the sixteenth century, Oriental scholars of considerable 
reputation were found among the Italian clergy. Even high dignitaries 
assiduously applied to the study of Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic, among 
whom I may mention Frederick Borromeo, who was raised to the dignity 
of cardinal by Sixtus V. Gavanti, the famous rubricist, was familiar with 
Hebrew, in which language he addressed this cardinal, on occasion of his 
taking possession of his diocese. Paul V., in 1610, issued a decree re- 
quiring the religious orders to have a professor of Greek and Hebrew in 
all their institutions, and a professor of Arabic in the chief schools. 
Urban VIII., who himself was familiar with Greek and Hebrew, invited 
several learned Oriental scholars, among whom was Abraham Ecchellensis, 
to settle at Rome. 

History continued to receive liberal encouragement from the Popes. 
Charles Sigonio, the great historian of the "Western empire, was highly 
honored by Pius V. Onuphrius Panvinio, an Augustinian friar, published 
at Rome valuable works, in which he re-examined the consulares fasti, 
already arranged by Sigonio, and otherwise illustrated chronology, as con- 
nected with history. Possevino, a J esuit, who added much to the stores 
of historic knowledge, was made Papal nuncio, by Gregory XIII., to the 
court of Sweden, and afterward to Russia. Cardinal Bentivoglio, the his- 
torian of the civil wars of Flanders, in the judgment of Hallam, ranks as 
a writer among the very first of his age. Antiquaries received like pa- 
tronage. Angeloni, who collected and illustrated ancient medals with 
great industry, was declared Antiquary of Rome by Clement X. Falco- 
nieri, who wrote on the antiquities of Anzio, was raised to the episcopacy 
by Clement XI. Fabretti, the most celebrated of this honorable class, 
whose constant researches among caverns and ancient monuments are said 
to have made his horse instinctively stop at the approach to some ruin or 
cave, was raised to ofiice by Alexander VIII. and Innocent XII. This 
province, according to the remark of Hallam, is justly claimed by Italy as 
her own.f 

Genius instinctively sought Rome, which inspired the poet with his 
loftiest strains, and was to him a haven, in which he might rest securely 
from the storms of life. To it Torquatus Tasso, whose muse rivals that 
of Homer, twice repaired, and there closed his career, leaving the world 
astounded at the sublimity of his flights, and the illusions of his disordered 
imagination. Urban VIII. and Alexander VII. were themselves votaries 
of the muses. 



* Literature of Europe, vol. i. ch. v. i. 

f Literature of Europe, vol. iv., from 1650 to 1670, ch. i. n. 21. 



REVIVAL OF LETTERS. 



387 



We need not furnish more recent instances of the claims of the Popes 
to the gratitude of the learned world for their effectual patronage of belles 
lettres, and of all those studies which contribute to refinement and intel- 
lectual enjoyment. .It is a mistake to suppose that Italy is not still the 
land of genius and of learning. Whatever she possesses, she owes to the 
benign influence of the Pontiffs. Their smiles have cheered the adventu- 
rous youth in his struggle to mount the rugged hill of science, their purse 
has supplied his wants, and they have been ever ready to bestow the most 
distinguished honors on the successful aspirant. Hallam truly observes, 
that genius and erudition have always been honored in Italy j and pays a 
tribute of praise to the spirit breathed in the works of Italians during the 
last fifty years, which shows that they are not unworthy of their sires. 
Byron, in many places, has rendered homage to the ancient glory of 
Koine, and sometimes avowed her actual literary pre-eminence, notwith- 
standing the decay of her earthly splendor. 

" Italia ! too, Italia ! looking on thee, 
Full flashes on the soul the light of ages ; 

still 

The fount at which the panting mind assuages 
Her thirst of knowledge, quaffing there her fill, 
Flows from the eternal source of Rome's imperial hill."* 



* Childe Harold canto iii. ex. 



CHAPTER V. 



1 1. — MEDICINE. 

The patronage of the Popes was not confined to the study of lan- 
guages or of antiquity; it embraced the useful sciences. Even in the 
Middle Ages these were not wholly neglected in the universities, which 
must necessarily share with their patrons the praise of whatever was 
taught within their walls. Medicine, long before it received the necessary 
attention in most countries, was a favorite study at Salerno, and was sub- 
sequently cultivated in the universities generally, among which Montpelier 
acquired high celebrity. The clergy and monks were among its most dili- 
gent students, until it became necessary to confine them to the duties more 
strictly belonging to their state of life. Hallam bears honorable testimony 
to the successful cultivation of medical science in the Italian universities. 
" Nicholas Leonicenus, who became professor at Ferrara, before 1470, was 
the first restorer of the Hippocratic method of practice. He lived to a 
very advanced age, and was the first translator of Galen from the Greek."* 
"In the science of anatomy, an epoch was made by the treatise of Mun- 
dinus, a professor of Bologna, who died in 1326. It is entitled, 'Anatome 
Omnium Corporis Interiorum Membrorum.' This book had one great 
advantage over those of Galen, that it was founded on the actual anatomy 
of the human body." — " His treatise was long the text-book of the Italian 
universities."f " The first book upon anatomy, since that of Mundinus, 
was by Zerbi of Verona, who taught in the University of Padua in 1495. 
The germ of discoveries that have crowned later anatomists with glory, is 
sometimes perceptible in Zerbi; among others, that of the Fallopian 
tubes."J 

In the sixteenth century, medical science received still higher encou- 
ragement. Leo X. rewarded with his usual munificence the translation 
of the medical works of Hippocrates, by Mark Fabius Calvi, of Ravenna; 
and in noticing the embassy sent to him by the citizens of Padua, he desig- 
nated with special honor J erom Accorambuoni, as " an excellent physician." 
The honor of Roman citizenship was bestowed, in 1563, on Mercuriale, a 
native of Padua, to reward his eminence in the medical science. Beren- 



* Hallam, Literature of Europe, ch. ix. n. 9. 
X Ibidem, ch. iii. n. 17. 
388 



f Ibidem, ch. ii. n. 37. 



SCIENCE. 



389 



gario de Carpi, the great anatomist, was urged by Clement VII. to fix his 
residence at Rome. Eustachius was professor in the Sapienza, which 
Alexander VII. furnished with an anatomical theatre. Many most distin- 
guished physicians and anatomists filled the chair of that university, while 
others were employed in the immediate service of the Popes. Vesalius, 
a Belgian, who was professor at Padua, bore away the palm in anatomical 
science, in the sixteenth century ; but Italy, which was the chief theatre 
of his scientific displays, came well nigh conferring it on her own sons. 
" Few sciences," says Hallam " were so successfully pursued in this period 
as that of anatomy. If it was impossible to snatch from Vesalius the 
pre-eminent glory that belongs to him as almost its creator, it might still 
be said, that two men now appeared who, had they lived earlier, would 
probably have gone as far, and who, by coming later, were enabled to go 
beyond him. These were Fallopius and Eustachius."* — " The best phy- 
sicians of the century were either Italian or French. "f 

The seventeenth century presents many instances of the encouragement 
given by the Popes to these studies. Malpighi was invited to Rome by 
Innocent XII. to be Papal physician. The services rendered by him to 
science may best be told in the words of Hallam : " Malpighi was the 
first who employed good microscopes in anatomy, and thus revealed the 
secrets, we may say, of an invisible world, which Leuwenhoek afterward, 
probably using still better instruments, explored with surprising success. 
To Malpighi anatomists owe their knowledge of the structure of the 
lungs. "J 

The Medical legal questions, published by Paul Zacchia, physician of 
Innocent X., is still highly esteemed for the exact specifications in 
anatomy which it contains. Many other medical works were published 
under the special patronage of the Popes. Lancisi, a Roman physician, 
gave his splendid medical library to the hospital of Santo Spirito, on con- 
dition that it should be for the general use of the profession. Italy 
retained her pre-eminence. " The Italians," says Hallam, " were still 
renowned in medicine. "§ 

In connection with this science, we may be allowed to mention the 
encouragement given to natural history and botany. The former was 
cultivated, under Leo X. and Adrian VI., by Mattioli, who published a 
work of great celebrity on herbs, plants, flowers, and animals. Aldo- 
vrandi, professor at Bologna, in a work published in 1574, which has re- 
ceived praise, although qualified, from Buffon, an excellent judge, treated 
at large of birds, insects, fishes, quadrupeds, and all kinds of animals, as also 
of metals and of trees. The Vatican Museum, in the time of St. Pius V., 
contained a vast collection of minerals, and of natural curiosities, which were 
described by Mercati, the guardian of it, in a work styled " Metallotheca," 



* Literature of Europe, vol. ii. ch. viii. n. 39. f Ibidem, n. 42. 

% Ibidem, vol. iv. ch. viii. n. 37. § Ibidem, n. 22. 



390 



SCIENCE. 



which was published long afterward, with splendid engravings, at the 
expense of Clement XI. Botany, especially in its connection with medi- 
cine, was a favorite study in Italy. Medical botany was taught in the 
Roman University under Pius V., and the Sapienza was furnished with a 
botanic garden by Alexander VII. 

§ 2.— ASTRONOMY. 

It is important that the reader should be made sensible how much the 
science of astronomy owes to the fostering patronage of the Pontiffs, espe- 
cially as in some instances they may, at first sight, appear to have opposed 
its progress. I shall at once offer an explanation of the first fact that 
gives a coloring to this charge. It occurred before the middle of the 
eighth century. 

St. Gregory II., on being informed that the priest Virgil, an Irishman, 
taught the existence of another world, and other men under the earth, 
another sun, and moon, directed Boniface to ascertain the fact, and, if 
true, to depose him from the priesthood. It is not clear that the opinion 
of Virgil was the same as that which has since been found to be correct, 
namely, that antipodes exist. The Pope seems to have understood him as 
asserting the existence of a race of men in another world, altogether dis- 
tinct from this, not derived from Adam, of whom God made all mankind, 
and not redeemed by Christ, who is the Saviour of all men. Of the 
measures actually adopted by Boniface we are not informed, but it is plain 
that no doctrinal decree was issued on the occasion. If Virgil be the 
same individual who was afterward created Bishop of Saltzburg, as is 
more generally believed, he must have satisfied the archbishop and the 
Pontiff that his sentiment was innoxious. Granting, what is by no means 
proved, that Gregory wished deposition to take place for the holding of 
the opinion concerning the existence of antipodes, it does not show any 
hostility to science, but a jealous care, lest scientific speculations, not yet 
confirmed by satisfactory proofs, should weaken the belief in the revealed 
doctrines. This solicitude may, in some instances, be excessive, without 
implying any disposition to oppose the progress of science, within its le- 
gitimate sphere. The Church is not authorized to pronounce on subjects 
of this nature, unless as far as they manifestly clash with revelation ; but 
she may adopt precautions, lest natural science be abused to cast discredit 
on revealed truth. 

Nicholas V., in 1448, in raising to the dignity of cardinal Nicholas 
Cusanus, a German, author of a work on statics and a defender of the 
earth's motion around the sun, gave an unequivocal mark of his regard 
for science. In Bologna, where astronomy was cultivated with success, 
this system was probably maintained by Dominic Maria Novara, under 
whom Copernicus, a native of Thorn -on the Vistula, studied at the close 



SCIENCE. 



391 



of this century. Laonardo da Vinci, a most illustrious astronomer, mathe- 
matician, and mechanician, as well as painter, " in a treatise written about 
the year 1510, speaks of the earth's annual motion as the opinion of 
many philosophers of his age."* Celio Calcagnini, professor in the Uni- 
versity of Ferrara, early in the sixteenth century published a work in 
support of it ; but Copernicus, who, at the commencement of the century, 
was professor of astronomy at Rome, gave it celebrity, when, after the 
reflections and observations of thirty-six years, me published his work, 
under the auspices of Paul III., in 1543. The difficulties in which Galileo 
was involved in 1616 and 1633, show that his manner of maintaining it, 
rather than the theory itself, must have provoked the displeasure of the 
ecclesiastical tribunal, since the system had been advanced without cen- 
sure, nearly two hundred years before, by a high dignitary of the Church, 
and had been expressly maintained, with the implied approbation of a 
most enlightened Pontiff, full ninety years before the sentence pronounced 
against the Florentine astronomer. Had he confined himself, as he was 
repeatedly warned, to scientific demonstrations, without meddling with 
Scripture, and proposed his system as probable, rather than as indubitable, 
he would have excited no opposition. To urge it absolutely, at a time when 
it was not supported by observations and calculations, was scarcely recon- 
cilable with the respect due to the sacred text, whose literal meaning 
should not be easily abandoned. "Mankind/' says Hallam, "can in 
general take these theories of the celestial movements only upon trust 
from philosophers ; and in this instance it required a very general concur- 
rence of competent judges to overcome the repugnance of what called 
itself common sense, and was in fact a prejudice as natural, as universal, 
and as irresistible as could influence human belief. With this was united 
another, derived from the language of Scripture; and though it might 
have been sufficient to answer, that phrases implying the rest of the earth 
and motion of the sun are merely popular, and such as those who are best 
convinced of the opposite doctrine must employ in ordinary language, this 
was neither satisfactory to the vulgar nor recognised by the Church."')" — 
"It must be confessed that the strongest presumptions in favor of the 
system of Copernicus were not discovered by himself." J It may be added, 
that even Galileo did not furnish the most convincing proofs of the 
system, and that his chief reliance was on the flux and reflux of the 
tides, which no one at this day holds to be a satisfactory demonstration of 
the motion of the earth. Even long after his time eminent astronomers 
rejected his system. " In the middle of the seventeenth century, and long 
afterward," says Hallam, " there were mathematicians of no small reputa- 
tion, who struggled staunchly for the immobility of the earth." In such 
circumstances it is not to be wondered that an ecclesiastical tribunal, fear- 



* History of Literature, vol. i. eh. iii. n. 115. 

f Literature of Europe, vol. ii. ch. viii. n. 10. J Ibidem, vol. iv. ch. viii. n. 32. 



392 



SCIENCE. 



fill lest the authority of the sacred Scriptures should suffer in the minds 
of the multitude, by the bold and unqualified maintenance of a system in 
apparent opposition to them, enjoined on Galileo, in the year 1616, to 
observe silence, and when he had violated this order, required him, in 
1633, to abjure the theory. It is certain that Urban VIII. did not con- 
sider the act of the Inquisition as a definitive decree ; and that the theory 
was publicly taught at the time by two Jesuits in the Roman college. 
All that has been said concerning the persecution of the astronomer is a 
tale of fancy. His discoveries gained for him the highest honors from all 
classes, from the Pontiff to the humblest citizen, in 1615, when he first 
visited the Eternal city. In 1624 he was again received graciously by the 
Pope and cardinals ; and in 1633, when his contemptuous violation of 
the injunction provoked their displeasure, his confinement was but nomi- 
nal, in the apartments of the Fiscal, that is, prosecuting attorney, of the 
tribunal. No corporal punishment was inflicted — no dungeon was 
opened to receive him J but, in consideration of his scientific merits, 
his pride and contempt were visited with the slightest expression of 
displeasure."* 

The study of astronomy was always encouraged by the Popes, while its 
abuse, by the superstitions of astrology, was severely prohibited. A 
splendid evidence of the successful cultivation of astronomical science, 
under pontifical patronage, was afforded by the correction of the Calendar, 
by the authority of Gregory XIII. The ancient Calendar, in use since 
the time of Julius Cesar, and adopted by the Council of Nice, was formed 
on the supposition that the annual course of the sun is completed in 365 
days and 6 hours, which in reality takes place in 365 days, 5 hours, 48 
minutes, and 25 seconds : whence, in the lapse of so many ages, a differ- 
ence of ten days existed in the designation of the vernal equinox ; the 
astronomical being prior to the civil calculation. Even in the eighth cen- 
tury, in the comparatively low condition of the sciences, the error had 
been pointed out by Venerable Bede, and subsequently by others. In 
the decline of the fifteenth century it again awakened attention. Sixtus 
IV. called to Rome Muller, the greatest mathematician of his age, to de- 
vise a remedy ; but the glory of the sublime task of reconciling the calcu- 
lations of time with the precise motion of the heavenly bodies, was reserved 
to Gregory XIII. Luigi Lilio, a man of obscure origin in Calabria, pro- 
posed the subtraction of ten days from the month of October, 1582, and 
to prevent a recurrence of the error, the omission of the leap-year at the 
close of each century, with the exception of the four hundreth year, which 
should be bissextile or leap-year. His suggestions, communicated after 
his death by his brother, were graciously received by the Pontiff, and 



* The letter of Galileo, published by Tiraboschi, shows that he was treated with extra- 
ordinary kindness, the Pope having changed the sentence of imprisonment into an order 
to remain, for a time, with the Archbishop of Sienna, his pei-sonal friend. 



SCIENCE. 



393 



submitted to the examination of a body of learned astronomers, among 
whom was the Jesuit Clavius. Being found just, they were recommended 
to the whole civilized world by Gregory, who, while acknowledging their 
source, lost nothing of the glory which the correction imparted. Although 
the dominion of science belongs not to the Vicar of Christ, it was a sublime 
spectacle to see him regulating by its aid the calculations of time, and the 
great festivals of the Church ; and when his authority in the things of sal- 
vation was proudly rejected by many, fixing a standard to which all nations 
would, sooner or later, conform. "The new calendar," says Hallam, 
" was immediately received in all countries acknowledging the Pope's su- 
premacy ; not so much on that account, though a discrepancy in the ec- 
clesiastical reckoning would have been very inconvenient, as of its real 
superiority over the J ulian. The Protestant countries came much more 
slowly into the alteration, truth being no longer truth, when promulgated 
by the Pope. It is now admitted that the Gregorian Calendar is very 
nearly perfect, at least as to the computation of the solar year."* 

To the learned institutions of Italy this and many other fruits of scien- 
tific observation may be fairly referred. I have not space to dwell on the 
many inventions and discoveries which were made by the professors of the 
various universities, or by those who had been introduced by them into 
the halls of science. Ignatius Danti, a Dominican, professor of mathema- 
tics in Bologna, left, as Tiraboschi remarks, an imperishable memorial of 
his astronomical knowledge, in the great meridian drawn by him in the 
temple of St. Petronius in that city, in the year 1576 : which, however, 
was not as great, or as accurate, as that which the immortal Cassini drew 
in the following age. 

The Pontiffs in the seventeenth century were true to their character as 
patrons of science. During the reign of Paul V., "a Jesuit, Grassi, in a 
treatise (de Tribas Cometis,) Borne, 1618, had the honor of explaining 
what had baffled Galileo, and first held them to be planets moving in vast 
ellipses round the sun." The astronomer Cassini, in 1657, was called to 
Borne by Alexander VII. ; and while there gained new fame by his 
observations on the two comets, which appeared in 1664 and 1665. His 
calculations, confirmed by the event, appeared like the predictions of an 
inspired man. They were followed by other discoveries, which seemed to 
mark him as one to whom the secrets of the skies were laid open. It was 
a glorious homage to science when the monarch of a great kingdom sought 
from Clement IX., as a special favor, that France should be permitted to 
profit by the extraordinary science of this illustrious astronomer, and the 
reluctant Pontiff consented to lend him for a time. After a few years, he 
pressingly called for his return, but Louis XIV. declined parting with a 

• * Hist, of Lit. vol. ii. ch. viii. n. 15. The Gregorian Calendar was finally adopted in 
Germany in 1777. England introduced the new style in 1752, and Sweden in 175:;. 
"Russia only retains the old style, which now differs 12 days from the new. — Encyclo- 
paedia Americana, art. Calendar. 



394 



SCIENCE. 



treasure of so much value; and to bind him to the soil, and identify all 
his attachments and interests with France, granted him the rights of citi- 
zenship. In this, and in many other instances, Italy had the glory of 
giving to other nations the luminaries of science. 

Castelli, a Benedictine monk, disciple and defender of Galileo, was called 
by Urban to Rome in 1625, to occupy the post of professor of mathematics 
in the Sapienza, when in 1628 he published his celebrated works on the 
measure of running waters,, and its geometrical demonstrations, whereby 
he has acquired the title of creator of this part of hydraulics. Another 
disciple of G-alileo, Cavalieri, of the order of Jeromites, who is generally 
reputed the father of the new geometry, was professor of Mathematics, 
about the same time, in Bologna, where he published in 1632 his treatise 
on continuous indivisibles. 

Benedict XIV. in the last century, followed in the footsteps of his illus- 
trious predecessors, and distinguished himself as the patron of astronomical 
science. By his orders the obelisk, sixty-seven feet high, mentioned by 
Pliny,* on which was a dial to mark the sun's shadow, and ascertain the 
length of the day at various seasons, was dug up from the earth in 1748, 
and its precious fragments rendered accessible to the learned. Even to 
this day the Jesuit professors of the Roman College, under the fostering 
patronage of the Pope, continue to enrich astronomical science by their 
observations and discoveries. To the lamented De Yico and his illustrious 
assistant Sestini, who is now in our midst, we are indebted for the dis- 
covery of the satellites of Venus, and of the rotatory motion of this planet 
on her axis ; while we owe to Secchi the very recent discovery of a new 
comet. 



* Hist. Nat. eh. ix. x. xi. 



CHAPTER VI. 



f fet Jiris. 

The Popes Lave, at all times, well understood that art may be fostered 
without detriment to religion : nay, their enlightened zeal found means to 
make the arts tributary. "If there be a Church/' says Saint Priest, 
" predestined to a social mission, which, far from throwing obstacles in 
the way of civilization, has developed and fostered its germs in the focus 
of ardent faith, the Roman Church must be recognized by these features. 
We shall see her during the first period of her existence, causing the edu- 
cation of the soul and of the mind to advance with equal pace ; cursing 
in the name of faith the gods of paganism, and protecting their images in 
the name of art : afterwards, for the interest of both, which she always 
happily combined, opposing the force of her word to the blind fury of the 
Iconoclasts Her true character was always to unite the mainte- 
nance of faith with the exercise of all the human faculties, to regulate 
them all without proscribing any of them, thus to devote them, in a puri- 
fied state, to the service of God. Rome attached to the altars of Christ 
the imagination itself, the rebellious slave of reason."* 

The proofs of these enlarged views are found in the acts of the ancient 
Popes, who, as soon as the danger of idolatry had ceased, availed them- 
selves of the labors of the artist for the decoration of the churches. Paint- 
ings, mosaics, and inlaid work of various kinds, were among their ordinary 
gifts. Paul I. built an oratory of the Blessed Virgin within the precincts 
of St. Peter's, having a silver statue of a hundred pounds' weight, richly 
gilded. Leo III. introduced the use of stained glass. Sergius II. raised 
a vestibule before St. John of Lateran, supported by columns and arches. 
Silver canopies for the altar, which were then called ciboria, were given 
by various Popes. These are a few instances of their zeal to adorn the 
house of God, that the facts of sacred history might be read on its walls, 
and the mysteries of faith constantly kept in view. The elegance of the 
execution varied according to the general condition of the times ; but at 
all times art presented her best offerings on the altars of religion. 

Blind zeal against paganism would have destroyed the temples and 
statues of the gods, as so many monuments of idolatry : the Popes pre- 
served them with care, wisely judging that the temples might be trans- 



* Historia de la Royaute, vol. ii. 1. v. p. 7. 



395 



396 



THE ARTS. 



ferred to the worship of the true God.* No glory could redound to the 
Deity from the destruction of the statues, wherein the skill of man ap- 
pears, fashioning the lifeless stone to the imitation of the divine work. 
Paul II. gathered ancient statues from all parts of the city into his own 
palace, and rewarded with munificence all who brought them from Greece, 
Asia, or other countries. What Leo X. did for the recovery of the works 
of art cannot be told. The monuments rescued by the care of the Popes 
from the destroying arm of the barbarian, or the fragments gathered up 
by them from the ruins of the desolate city, came down through ages of 
tumult as models of perfection, which, in a happier age, were to be rival- 
led, if not excelled. The Pantheon, the glory of Roman architecture, was 
to be placed in the clouds by the sublime genius of Michael Angelo ; the 
wondrous dome crowning a temple which far surpasses, in its vast and just 
dimensions, all the ancient fanes of false deities, and even the august man- 
sion which God Himself chose among His favored people. If the Middle 
Ages produced nothing worthy of the ancient masters, it was a matter of 
just glory for the age of Julius and of Leo, that genius revisited the 
earth, and exhibited on the canvas such animated representations as filled 
the eye with wonder, and stirred the deep fountains of the heart. The 
Transfiguration and the General Judgment are miracles of genius, which 
the world might have never seen but for the munificence and refined taste 
of the calumniated Pontiffs. "Rome," says Tiraboschi, "was the first 
theatre in which were collected the most perfect productions of nature and 
art. Julius II., Leo X., Clement VII., and Paul III., are names of im- 
mortal renown in the annals of the fine arts, for the munificence with 
which they promoted and cherished them during their pontificates. There 
were seen re-united, almost all at one time, Raphael of Urbino, Julius of 
Rome, John of Udine, Perino del Vago, Polidore of Caravaggio, Francis 
Mazzuoli, Baldassar Peruzzi, Anthony of S. Gallo, and James Sansovino, 
Alphonsus Lombardi, and Baccio Bandinelli, — names so illustrious in 
painting, architecture, and sculpture ) and there, finally, was Michelangelo 
Buonarotti, painter, sculptor, and architect, uniting in himself all the splen- 
did endowments which were divided among the others. The Vatican 
basilic would alone be sufficient to render immortal the names of the four 
Popes above mentioned, to whom its commencement and termination are 
principally due. In it all the arts seem to vie with one another, which 
should present the most splendid proofs of the excellence of its pro- 
fessors, "f " Sculpture," says Voltaire, "was the art in which the Greeks 
excelled ; and the glory of the Italians is, to have approached the perfec- 



* St. Gregory wrote to St. Augustin to this effect : " Si fana eadem bene constructa 
sunt, necesse est. ut a cultu dasmonum ad obsequium veri Dei debeant commodari; ut 
dum gens ipsa eadem fana sua non videt destrui, de corde errorem deponat, et Deum 
verum cognoscens ac adorans, ad loca quae consuevit familiarius concurrat." Greg., ep. 
ix. 71. 

f Storia della Letteratura Italiana, v. vii. p. iii. 1. iii. c. vii. 



THE ARTS. 



397 



tion of their models. In architecture they far surpassed them ; and all 
nations acknowledge that nothing was ever comparable to the chief temple 
of modern Borne, the most beautiful, vast, and bold that ever existed in 
the universe."* 

Byron has justly said : — 

"Majesty, 

Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty, all are aisled 
In this eternal ark of 'worship undefined." 

The animated portraits of Titian, and his living landscapes, which invite 
the beholder to walk amid the delightful scenery, found admirers in Leo 
X. and Paul III. j and the miniatures of Julius Clovio were rewarded by 
the munificence of Farnese. Sofonisba Anguisciola, of Cremona, employed 
her pencil with such success in the portrait of the Queen of Spain, that 
Pius IT., to whom it was forwarded, honored her with a complimentary 
letter on the excellence of the painting. Thus did the Popes prove them- 
selves patrons of the fine arts, lavishing honors and wealth on those who 
attained to eminence in their cultivation. They made Boine, as Voltaire 
acknowledges, the most beautiful city in the world. t 

It would be tedious, although not uninteresting, to enumerate instances 
of encouragement given to all the arts. Engravers, lapidaries, as well as 
painters and sculptors, are indebted to pontifical munificence for the pro- 
gress and success of their labors. Martin V. and Paul II. were their 
special patrons. Clement Birago, a youth of Milan, at the court of Cle- 
ment TIL first practised the art of engraving on diamonds. "The fine 
arts continued to flourish in Italy because the contagion of controversy 
scarcely reached that country; and while blood flowed in Germany, 
France, and England, for matters that were not understood, (it is Voltaire 
that speaks,) Italy, at peace since the astonishing sacking of Home by the 
army of Charles V. ; cultivated the arts with increased ardor. The wars 
of religion spread ruin elsewhere ; but at Borne, and in several other 
Italian cities, prodigies of architecture were witnessed. Ten Popes suc- 
cessively contributed, almost without any interruption, to the completion 
of the basilic of St. Peter, and encouraged the arts generally. Xothing 
of the kind was seen throughout the rest of Europe at that period. The 
glory of genius then belonged to Italy alone, as it had been formerly 
peculiar to Greece. "J 

"We cannot easily estimate the improvements in church building and 
decoration which took place in various countries, under the guidance of 
Christian missionaries, and the influence of Boman models. To be just, 
we should estimate these things according to the previous state of the re- 
spective countries. Of England. Dr. Miley observes : £,/ St. Wilfrid and 
St. Bennet Biscop, the great improvers of Saxon architecture, made 
several pilgrimages to Borne, (the former three or four, the latter no less 



* Essai but mistoire, t. iii. ch. cxvii. j Essai sur FHistoire Generale, t. ii. eh. xlix. 
+ Ihid., t. iii. ch. cxvii. 



398 



THE ARTS. 



than five;) and never did they return without a rich importation of manu- 
scripts, chalices, various utensils, vestments, and ornaments for the altar ) 
besides statues and pictures to adorn the temples, which their observation 
of the Roman and continental structures had enabled them to erect. In 
these new structures, they exhibited to their admiring countrymen all the 
wonders of cut-stone walls and towers, lead roofs and glass windows, with 
sundry other astonishing improvements, 1 juxta Romanorum morem.' And 
it may be well imagined, that not the least attractive of these novelties 
Were the creations of the Italian or Grecian pencil."* 

The glory of Rome, as the seat of the arts, remains undiminished. 
When, in the conclave of 1829, Chateaubriand, the French ambassador, 
had expressed the necessity of choosing for Pontiff a man of enlightened 
views, corresponding with the progress of the age, and Cutzow, the Aus- 
trian ambassador, had harped on the same subject, Cardinal Castiglioni, in 
reply, modestly pointed to the Vatican, as an unquestionable evidence of 
the patronage which the Holy See continues to extend to art and science, 
and the care with which she fosters mental development. His election to 
fill the vacant chair was an act of homage to the arts. Byron acknow- 
ledged that Italy had still illustrious men in every department : u Italy 
has great names still — Canova, Monti, Ugo Foscolo, Pindemonte, Visconti, 
Morelli, Cicognara, Albrizzi, Mezzofanti, Mai, Mustoxidi, Aglietti, and 
Vacca, will secure to the present generation an honorable place in most 
of the departments of art, science, and belles lettres ; and in some the 
very highest. Europe — the world — has but one Canova. "f We may 
still address the mother and mistress of churches in the language of this 
child of genius :— 

" Mother of arts, as once of arms, 
Thy hand "was then our guardian, and is still our guide." 



* Rome under Paganism, &c, vol. ii. p. 243. 
f Introd. to canto iv., Childe Harold. * 



CHAPTER VII. 



0f printing* 

§ 1.— ENCOURAGEMENT OF PRINTERS. 

The zeal of the Popes for the promotion of elegant literature and use- 
ful knowledge was displayed, in the most unequivocal manner, on the 
discovery of, what Berthold, Archbishop of Mentz, did not hesitate to 
style the divine art of printing. To Germany belongs the glory of this 
invention ; but only a few years had elapsed when Italy rivalled and sur- 
passed her. " The whole number of books," as Hallam testifies, " printed 
with dates of time and place, in the German Empire, from 1461 to 1470, 
according to Panzer, was only twenty-four; of which five were Latin, 
and two German Bibles." — "A more splendid scene was revealed in 
Italy." Sweynheim and Pennartz, two workmen of Fust, set up a press, 
doubtless with encouragement and patronage, at the monastery of Subiaco, 
in the Apennines. — In 1467, after printing Augustin De Civitate Dei, 
and Cicero de Oratore, the two Germans left Subiaco for Rome, where 
they sent forth not less than twenty-three editions of ancient Latin au- 
thors before the close of 1470. — The whole number of books that had 
issued from the press in Italy at the close of that year, amounts, according 
to Panzer, to eighty-two, exclusive of those which have no date, some of 
which may be referrible to this period."* Another German printer, 
Udalric Hahn, was patronized at Rome at the same time, and gave to the 
public the meditations of Cardinal Turrecremata, illustrated with wood- 
cuts. The bishop John Andrew de Bussi, librarian of the Vatican, aided 
the printers in their literary labors. The example of Rome was eagerly 
imitated by no less than fifty cities of Italy. Venice soon surpassed her 
in the number of works issuing from the press ; while Milan strove to 
excel in the magnificence of the execution. All the works of Cicero 
were printed in splendid style at Milan, in 1498 and 1499 ; and " an edi- 
tion of Cicero's epistles appeared also in the town of Fuligno."f " The 
books printed in Italy during these ten years (from 1470 to 1480) amount, 
according to Panzer, to 1297; of which 234 are editions of ancient classical 
authors. Books without date are, of course, not included ; and the list 



* Literature of Europe, vol. i. ch. iii. n. 33. 



f Ibidem. 

300 



400 



ART OF PRINTING. 



must not be reckoned complete as to others."* "A translation of the 
Bible by Malerbi, a Venetian, was published in 1471, and two other edi- 
tions of that, or a different version, the same year. Eleven editions are 
enumerated by Panzer in the fifteenth century."f The books printed at 
Rome down to 1500 are 935, a far greater number than were issued from 
any other city but Venice, which counted 2835. u Much more than ten 
thousand editions of books or pamphlets (a late writer says fifteen thou- 
sand) were printed from 1470 to 1500. More than half the number 
appeared in Italy. "J u The editions of the Vulgate registered in Panzer 
are ninety-one." § An edition of the Vulgate, corrected on the Hebrew 
and Greek texts, was published at Venice in 1484, a copy of which is still 
preserved in the library of the Baltimore cathedral. ]| 

The activity of the Roman press was considerably lessened by the wars, 
of which Italy was the theatre in the early part of the sixteenth century ; 
but was soon restored. "An JEthiopic, that is, Abyssinian grammar, 
with the Psalms in the same language, was published at Rome by Potken, 
in 1513. "Tf " The ^Ethiopic version of the Xew Testament was printed 
at Rome in 1548."** A splendid edition of the works of Homer issued 
from the Roman press in 1549, under the superintendence of Anthony 
Bladus. Paul Manutius, the learned Venetian, on the invitation of Pius 
IV., established a printing office at Rome in 1561, and gave to the public 
many works, the expenses of which were defrayed by his munificence. 
Pius appointed two correctors of the press for the Greek language, and 
ordered diligent search to be made for manuscripts in the Oriental tongues. 
When, after an absence for some time, Paul returned to Rome, in the 
pontificate of Gregory XIII., this enlightened Pope insisted on retaining 
him there, in his old age, and assigned him a pension, leaving him at liberty 
to pursue his literary labors as might suit his convenience. u The in- 
creasing zeal of Rome," Hallam remarks, "for the propagation of its faith, 
both among infidels and schismatics, gave a larger sweep to the cultivation 
of Oriental languages." Sixtus V., in order to place the Apostolic print- 
ing office on a permanent basis, spent 40,000 crowns to provide it with 
Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Servian types, and with excellent 
paper, and all other requisites for elegant execution ; and assigned pensions 
to learned men charged with the supervision of the press. During his 
pontificate, an elegant edition of the Septuagint was issued from it, which is 
acknowledged to be the best heretofore anywhere published. Thence, also, 
came forth an edition of the Vulgate corrected chiefly by the collation of 
manuscripts, and published with his solemn sanction, in which, neverthe- 



* Literature of Europe, vol. i. ch. iii. n. 44. f Ibidem, n. 53. 

% Ibidem, n. 143. J Ibidem, n. 141. 

j] Fontibus ex Grsecis, Hebrffiorum quoque libris 
Emendata satis et decorata simul. 
Z Literature of Europe, vol. i. ch. v. n. 77. Ibidem, ch. ix. n. 25. 

-ft See Cyclopaedia of Bib. Lit., edited by John Kitto, D.D., F.S.A., v. Septuagint. 



ART OF PRINTING. 



401 



less, about forty typographical errors were soon discovered, which deter- 
mined him to issue a corrected edition. His death having prevented the 
execution of his design, it was delayed until the pontificate of Clement 
VIII., who allowed the revisors of it to modify and correct many other 
readings, by reference to the original texts. The discrepancies thus 
arising between the two editions being very numerous, although for the 
most part of little moment, the adversaries of the Holy See have taken 
thence occasion to ring the changes on Papal infallibility, as if this re- 
garded the greater or less accuracy of an edition of the Scriptures. The 
sanction given by Sixtus was directed to assure the faithful that the edi- 
tion was substantially correct, and to prevent any changes being made in 
the readings by private authority. Clement, in publishing the corrected 
edition, renewed the same sanction with the same views, and gave it as 
the Sixtine edition revised. This explanation seemed^ called for by the 
occasion presented to me of mentioning these editions of the Vulgate, 
both of which attest the zeal of the Popes for the integrity of the 
Scriptures. 

The munificence of the Popes was employed in encouraging the printing 
of books to be circulated in the Eastern nations. The first printing office 
in Europe for the Arabic tongue was established at Fano, by Gregory 
Giorgio of Venice, at the expense of Julius II., in which language a 
book issued from it in 1514. Gregory XIII. declared Cardinal Ferdi- 
nand de' Medici protector of Ethiopia, and of the patriarchates of Alex- 
andria and Antioch, in order to stimulate his zeal for the conversion of 
the inhabitants of those countries : in consequence of which the Cardinal 
gathered manuscripts from all parts; and at an immense expense, cast 
Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, and Armenian types, and employed 
learned men, especially John Baptist Raimondi, to superintend the press. 
An Arabic and a Chaldaic grammar issued from it : some works of Avi- 
cenna and Euclid were published in Arabic, with three thousand copies 
of the four Gospels in the same language, for distribution in the East. 
Raimondi also undertook to publish the whole Bible in ten different 
tongues. Thus, in the sixteenth century, both before and after the so- 
called Reformation, the Popes and the cardinals were active patrons of 
the press, and Bible-distributors ! " The Persic grammar was given at 
Rome by Raimondi in 1614." u We find Ferrari, author of a Syriac lexi- 
con, published at Rome in 1622. " In 1627 there were types of fifteen 
different languages, and, at a later period, of twenty-three, in the printing 
establishment of Propaganda. There issued from it, in the decline of 
that age, a work styled " Bihliotheca magna Rabbinica," composed by 
Father Bartolocci, a Cistercian monk, who for thirty-six years had been 
professor of Hebrew. An Arabic grammar, a Syro- Arabic Latin thesau- 
rus, a Syriac. dictionary, a Hebrew dictionary, and other works of a like 
character, were published there at various times. Three Maronites, 
namely, Victor Scialac, Abraham Ecchellensis, and Faustus Nairo, were 

26 



402 



ART OF PRINTING. 



maintained at the expense of the Pope, for the purpose of publishing 
works in Arabic. In 1621, a great work called " Hebrew Concordances," 
came from that press, and was so highly esteemed as to be reprinted in 
London. An Arabic Bible, which was in preparation during forty-six 
years, was published at Rome in 1671, in three folio volumes. A printing 
office, furnished with Oriental types, was established in Milan by Cardinal 
Frederic Borromeo, from which an Arabic dictionary in four volumes 
issued in 1632. Cardinal Barbarigo established an Oriental printing 
office at Padua. " A fine edition of the Koran, and still esteemed the 
best," as Hallam observes, " was due to Marracci, professor of Arabic in 
the Sapienza, or University of Rome, and published at the expense of 
Cardinal Barbarigo in 1698."* The munificence of Clement XI., enabled 
Joseph Simon Assemani, a Maronite of Syria, to publish at Rome, in 
1719, his learned work on the Vatican manuscripts in the Oriental lan- 
guages. The publication of the works of St. Ephrem was also begun by 
him, and continued by his nephew Stephen Evodius. The Acts of the 
martyrs of the East and of the "West were published in Chaldaic, and 
translated by the latter ; and several other works, composed by others of 
that family, came from the same press. It is not easy to enumerate all 
that Rome has done, and is still engaged in doing, to promote Oriental 
literature. " "Who," cries Ranke, " does not know what the Propaganda 
has done for philological learning V'~f 



§ 2. RESTRICTIONS ON THE PRESS. 

The services of the Popes to letters are forgotten, whilst the restrictions 
imposed by them on the press are made a matter of reproach. Berthold, 
Archbishop of Metftz, who esteemed so highly the art of printing, deemed 
it proper to guard against its abuse, by requiring the examination of books 
by clergymen appointed for the purpose, previous to their publication. 
Alexander VI. published a similar decree with special reference to Ger- 
many, and Leo X. renewed and confirmed it as a general law. Yet as 
bad books were multiplied, Paul IV., in 1539, published a list of prohibited 
books. A committee of divines was appointed by the Council of Trent 
to form a list of bad or dangerous books ; who, having failed to complete the 
task assigned them before the close of the Council, were allowed to con- 
tinue their labors, and ordered to submit them to the Pope for approval. 
The list is daily increasing of books, the reading or retention of which is 
prohibited under ecclesiastical censures : and although this discipline is 
overruled by contrary usage in most countries, it serves to give coloring 
to the charge, that the Popes are hostile to the liberty of the press. In 
justice to them I must observe, that their sole object has been to re- 



* Literature of Europe, vol. iv. ch. viii. n. 41. 
■j Ranke, Hist. Popes, vol. ii. 1. vii. p. 59. 



THE ART OF PRINTING. 



403 



strain the press within the limits of the divine law, and that the licen- 
tiousness which sends forth impious and corrupt books, to poison the minds 
of youth, is that which our late venerable Pontiff visited with unmitigated 
censure. Liberty of the press, considered as a civil right, does not sup- 
pose freedom from moral restraint, or impunity from civil penalties for its 
abuse. Its chief value, in a civil point of view, is to give free expression 
to public sentiment in regard to the management of public affairs by rulers, 
and other officers, and thus to prevent oppression, or procure its remedy, 
by exposing it to general censure. The exercise of such liberty, for the 
true interests of the country, is nowise opposed to the spirit or discipline 
of the Church. It is well known that the Popes have permitted the pub- 
lication at Bonie of works on civil polity, which, on account of their liberal 
and popular principles, were proscribed in several European States j* and 
that, at all times, they have shown themselves disposed to favor the op- 
pressed, rather than stifle their complaints. Incendiary and seditious 
works could not, of course, be sanctioned by the rulers of the Church, 
who are bound to sustain established order, and promote peace ; but these 
are not included in the true notion of liberty of the press ; since in France, 
where this is a constitutional right, they are liable to seizure when dis- 
covered ; and in this country they expose the authors and publishers to 
the severity of the law. In all that regards science, literature, and the 
arts, the utmost freedom of the press may be enjoyed, with no limit but 
the caution of not advancing on holy ground. The golden age of Spanish 
literature was precisely that in which the laws of the Index, the tribunal 
which forms the list of prohibited books, were strictly enforced. How can 
it be pretended that science is impeded in her legitimate progress, because 
she is warned not to displace the landmarks of religion ? A vast space 
lies open to research and improvements, without encroaching on the realms 
of faith. If Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, and Milton's 
Paradise Lost, are found on the list of prohibited books, it is because the 
philosopher artfully undermined the doctrine of the spiritual nature of the 
soul, and the poet exhibited Christ according to the fancy of the Arians 
and made of Lucifer a hero. Lest an incautious reader, misled by a great 
name, should imbibe fatal error, the books were proscribed ; but even in 
countries where the discipline prevails, leave to read them is easily obtained. 
The Popes have at all times respected the meditations of true philosophy, 
and honored the inspirations of the Muses, always saving the truth of what 
God has revealed. 

Freedom of the press, as a civil right, in this country, extends to the 



* The work of Spedalieri, entitled, " I diritti dell' uomo," in which the right of a nation 
to depose a despot, is supported by the authority of St. Thomas of Aquin, in his letter to 
the Bishop of Rome, was published at Rome in 1791, dedicated to Cardinal Ruffo, 
Apostolic Treasurer. Pius VI. who encouraged its publication, rewarded the author by 
appointing him one of the Canons of the Basilic of St. Peter. 



404 



THE ART OF PRINTING. 



publication of works on doctrinal subjects, without regard to the faith of 
the Church : so that all the doctrines which we hold to be divine, may be 
assailed without incurring any civil penalty, which, however, may be in- 
flicted, even here, on an open blasphemer of Christ. To the full enjoy- 
ment of this civil right by our fellow-citizens, we make no objection what- 
ever. The Constitutions of the various States, and the principles of the 
country and age, give it, leaving to each one the responsibility of its en- 
joyment. For ourselves, believing firmly that God has made a revelation, 
of which the Church is the guardian, we cannot conscientiously approve 
of any thing written or spoken in opposition to her teaching. The decrees 
of the Pope proscribing certain books as containing false doctrines, are for 
us the warnings of a father against what might pervert the understanding, 
and corrupt the hearts of his children. Independently of them, we are 
naturally bound to shun whatever is dangerous to our faith and morals. 
The youth who, uninstructed in the great evidences of revelation, fami- 
liarizes himself with Paine's Age of Reason, exposes himself to the mani- 
fest danger of infidelity. The female who, with morbid curiosity, peruses 
an obscene tale, is liable to lose that purity of heart which is her greatest 
treasure. In proportion to our information and moral habits, the dangers 
may be diminished ; but it is beyond a doubt, that to the reading of bad 
books may be traced the infidelity and corruption of innumerable indi- 
viduals. The restrictions which the Popes imposed would be unjust, if 
arbitrary; and unreasonable, if those for whom they were intended did not 
already recognise their pastoral authority : but this being recognised, no- 
thing is more reasonable and just than to turn away the sheep from noxious 
pastures, by proscribing whatever is contrary to sound doctrine. At all 
events, the precedent of the proscription of bad books was given by the 
Apostles, when the vast collection of works of magic belonging to converts 
from that superstition, were consigned to the flames.* Will the readers 
of Scripture charge the Apostles with hostility to knowledge ? The moral 
restraints resulting from our discipline serve to avert many of the evils 
with which the licentiousness of the press deluges the world. The pangs 
of the broken heart when its shame has been revealed — the desolation of 
families, whose sorrows have rung on the public ear — the torture of high- 
minded patriots, writhing under the calumnies of reckless rivals — the fury 
of a populace maddened to arson and bloodshed by incendiary publications, 
and the struggles and convulsions of parties, which almost threaten the 
dissolution of society, are no imaginary evils. Yoltaire did not hesitate 
to declare that the press had become one of the scourges of society.^ 
Even here, abolition publications are regarded with horror, as tending to 
encourage sedition and endangering the lives of the citizens. 



* Acts xix. 19. 

f " La presse, il le fuut avouer, est devenue un des fleaux de la soeiete, et un bri- 
gandage intolerable." Yoltaire, fragment d'une lettre a un Acadeniicien de Berlin, t. v. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



l 1. CIVILIZATION. 

"What we have elsewhere said of the authority exercised over princes 
for the correction of their morals, must give a high idea of the general in- 
fluence which the Popes had on morality and order. When the people 
saw their leaders stricken with the rod of ecclesiastical authority, they 
were made deeply sensible of the turpitude of crime, which could not 
escape censure even in the great and powerful. The struggle of the Pon- 
tiffs with the fierce passions of the feudal nobility, is graphically described 
by a writer in the British Critic, who thus represents the position of the 
Church in the Middle Ages : " Just as she had subdued the intelligence 
and refinement of the old Roman Empire, it was swept away, and she was 
left alone with its wild destroyers. Her commission was changed : she 
had now to tame and rule the barbarians. But upon them the voice 
which had rebuked the heretic, fell powerless. While they pressed into 
her fold, they overwhelmed all her efforts to reclaim them, and filled her, 
from east to west, with violence and stunning disorder. When, therefore, 
she again roused herself to confront the world, her position and difficulties 
were shifted. Her enemy was no longer heresy, but vice — wickedness 
which wrought with a high hand, foul and rampant, like that of Sodom, 
or the men before the flood. It was not the faith, but the first principles 
of duty — justice, mercy, and truth, which were directly endangered by 
the unbridled ambition and licentiousness of the feudal aristocracy, who 
were then masters of Europe. With this fierce nobility, she had to fight 
the battle of the poor and weak — to settle the question whether the 
Christian religion and the offices of the Church were to be any thing more 
than names, and honors, and endowments, trappings of chivalry and 
gentle blood ; whether there were yet strength left upon earth to maintain 
and avenge the laws of God, whoever might break them. She had to 
stand between the oppressor and his prey — to compel respect for what is 
pure and sacred from the lawless and powerful."* It is impossible not 
to admire the unflinching resolution with which the Pontiffs contended 
for moral principle against these potentates. The disorders of those ages 

* British Critic, vol. 33, p. 7. 

405 



406 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



shock us by their enormity and frequency : but they would have been un- 
mitigated and unrelieved by any exhibition of Christian virtues, had not 
the Popes fulminated censure against the prevaricators, and proclaimed to 
the world maxims of purity and holiness. " These ages of darkness, as 
they are called/' says Dr. Nevin, " were still, to an extent now hard to 
understand, ages also of faith. The church still had, as in earlier days, 
her miracles, her martyrdoms, her missionary zeal, her holy bishops and 
saints, her works of charity and love, her care for sound doctrine, her 
sense of a heavenly commission, and her more than human power to con- 
vert and subdue nations. True, the world was dark, very dark and very 
wild; and its corruptions were powerfully felt at times in her own bosom; 
but no one but a simpleton or a knave will pretend to make this barbarism 
her work, or to lay it as a crime to her charge. She was the rock that 
beat back its proud waves. She was the power of order and law, the 
fountain of a new civilization, in the midst of its tumultuating chaos. "f 

The Popes did not, however, confine their efforts to those who, by the 
action of Providence, seemed brought within their reach. With unceasing 
solicitude they applied themselves to the diffusion of the Gospel, by de- 
spatching apostolic men, from time to time, to barbarous and savage na- 
tions, to impart to them the knowledge of salvation. In order to estimate 
their services, it would be necessary to go over the records of missions in 
various ages, and to consider the condition of the ahorigines, or early 
settlers of each country. Children of nature, with no rule but impulse, 
and no restraint but the fear of vengeance — with no affection but for ob- 
jects of momentary gratification, and no ambition but to slay an enemy — 
sunk in sensuality, without even the restraint of shame, they scarcely pre- 
sented any thing to distinguish them from the brute beast. For the salva- 
tion of such degraded beings, the Popes uniformly sighed, and when oc- 
casion offered itself, sent forth the heralds of the Gospel to enlighten, hu- 
manize, and save them. The naked savage and the painted barbarian 
stood aghast — the huntsman and the warrior tribe were arrested in their 
course, at the sight of the missionaries of the cross : the tones of sacred 
music fell on their delighted ears, and they listened to the tale of wonder 
which the strangers recounted : finally, they clung to them as fathers, and 
learned from them to control their unruly passions, and worship the 
Great Spirit. The condescension of the Popes in yielding to these re- 
claimed children of the forest whatever the divine law did not forbid, and 
leading them gradually to the perfection of Christian discipline, shows ex- 
traordinary wisdom and true philanthropy. f With zeal tempered by 
wisdom, they labored incessantly to form them to arts of peace and in- 
dustry. " The Gregorian school," says Count St. Priest, speakiDg of St. 

* "Early Christianity," M. E. Xov. 1S51. 

f St. Greogory -writing to Augustin observes: "Xam duris mentibus simul omnia 
abscindere impossible esse non dubium est, quia is, qui locum summum aseendere nititux, 
gradibus vel passibus, non auteni saitibus, eievatur." Greg. ep. ix. 71. 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



407 



Boniface, the apostle of Germany, sent by Gregory II., "although ani- 
mated chiefly by the sincerest religious zeal, did not limit their views to 
the salvation of souls. To clear the land, to change a dry soil and thick 
forests into fertile plains, to build dwellings which might serve as the com- 
mencement of cities, to accustom men to social life, to bind strongly the 
family tie, and to form bonds of association, and of mutual wants and suc- 
cors, to unite, to colonize, such were the plans that Winfred revolved in 
his mind."* What Boniface accomplished in Germany, the apostles 
of other countries effected in their respective missions. The encourage- 
ment given to monastic institutions had this tendency and effect. The 
tranquility of the cloister had its charms for the warrior, who oftentimes 
laid aside his armor, to sit at the feet of a holy monk, and learn the 
science of salvation. The wandering tribes were astonished at the sight 
of a vast monastery with its gardens and well-cultivated fields, and they 
learned to imitate the industry which afforded plenty and contentment. 
Hostile bands trod with reverence on the soil which was sacred to religion 
and virtue. It is impossible to estimate the effects of these institutions 
on civilization. Marshes drained, immense wastes reclaimed and fertilized, 
valleys beautified with varied cultivation, hills crowned with olives, and 
plains overspread with wheat, are only the immediate fruits of their labors. f 
The influence of the example of the monks in recommending industry and 
peace must have been immense. 

The conversion and civilization of so many barbarous nations are among 
the most splendid triumphs and evidences of Christianity, no wise inferior 
to those which marked the first preaching of the gospel. Hence Dr. 
Nevin points to them as proofs of its enduring power : "Take the conver- 
sion of Saxon England in the time of Gregory the Great, and the long 
work of moral organization with which it was followed in succeeding cen- 
turies. Look at the missionaries that proceeded from this island, apos- 
tolical bishops and holy monks, in the seventh and eight centuries, plant- 
ing churches successfully in the countries of the Rhine. Consider the en- 
tire evangelization of the new barbarous Europe. Is it not a work fairly 
parallel, to say the least, with the conquest of the old Roman Empire in 
the first ages ? Is not the argument of ' miraculous success/ quite as 
strong here as there ?"J 

The veneration of the Blessed Virgin, which the Popes always cherished, 
was amongst the most powerful means of civilization. Woman was 
raised from her degradation, and no longer regarded as the slave of 
a haughty master. She was respected because of Her who was blessed 
among women. The mild virtues of the Virgin caught the admira- 
tion of the fierce sons of Mars, who felt honored in imitating her gentle- 

* Histoire de la Royaute par Saint Priest, vol. ii. 1. viii. p. 223. 

f See Tableau des Institutions et des Moeurs de l'Eglise au Moyen Age par Frederic 
Hurter vol. ii. ch. vii. p. 152. traduit de l'Allemand. 
% " Early Christianity," M. R. Nov. 1851. 



408 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



ness and sweetness. Holy purity was loved, because it had been honored 
in her person. Not only vast numbers of her own sex cherished it with 
jealous care, but thousands of men vowed to preserve it, and sought the 
aid of her prayers for that purpose. It is manifest that the devotion to 
her was developed and exercised in those ages in a remarkable degree ; 
to which we may fairly ascribe all that was bland and meek in manners, 
all that was pure in morals, all that was tender and affecting in piety. 
Augustus William Schlegel, although a Protestant, has beautifully ob- 
served : " With the virtues of chivalry was associated a new and purer 
spirit of love, an inspired homage for genuine female worth, which was 
now revered as the pinnacle of humanity, and enjoined by religion itself 
under the image of a Virgin mother, infused into all hearts a sentiment 
of unalloyed goodness."* 

Without entering into further details we may confidently say, that to 
the Popes, as rulers of the Church, we owe the great principles of order 
and law on which civilization depends. An anonymous writer in the 
Mercersburg Review avows that to the Church " we are indebted for our 
modern civilization ; for whatever influence besides may have contributed 
to this end, all must have ever remained impotent, without their main- 
spring, Christianity. This found its exclusive abode in the body of this 
church, "f 

I 2. PERSONAL VIRTUES. 

The personal virtues which distinguished the Popes, necessarily had a 
most happy influence on the whole Christian world. Placed on the highest 
eminence, they shone, for the most part, with bright effulgence, and gave 
occasion to all to glorify God for the good works which they performed. 
Their charity, which embraced all mankind, was experienced far beyond 
the limits which their means might have marked for its exercise. In the 
decline of the second century, Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, addressed a 
letter of thanks to the Roman Church, for the relief which Pope Soter 
had sent to the distressed faithful of the East, conformably to the custom 
of his predecessors: a From the beginning/' he writes, "you were wont 
to bestow favours on the brethren, and to send means of subsistence to the 
poor of other churches : here you come to the relief of the indigent faith- 
ful, especially of those who are at work in the mines ; and as becomes 
genuine Romans, you maintain the ancient usage of your ancestors. The 
blessed Bishop Soter was not content with walking in the footsteps of the 
fathers ; besides taking on himself the charge of sending your generous 
offerings to the faithful, he comforted the brethren who went to him with 
pious words, uttered with the tenderest affection of a fond father towards 



* Lectures on Dramatic Literature, translated by John Black, p. S, American edition, 
f Protestantism and Romanism. M. R. March, 1852, S. N. C. Jefferson, Md. 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



409 



his children."* A century afterwards, St. Dionysius, Bishop of Rome, 
sent alms to Cesarea in Cappadocia, for the ransom of slaves, with letters 
of condolence to the afflicted Church.-)- The treasures of the Roman 
Church were regarded as the common fund of the poor, so that when the 
deacon Lawrence was called on by the pagan persecutor to deliver them 
up, he did not hesitate to distribute them among the poor, whom he pre- 
sented at the appointed time, saying : " These are the treasures of the 
Church I" 

Charity continued to be the distinguishing characteristic of the Pontiffs. 
With scarcely an exception, they are all described as fathers of the poor, 
some of them receiving greater praise for more unbounded munificence. 
Gelasius, who lived at the close of the fifth century, is said to have been 
the servant of all men, but especially of the poor of Christ. In the seventh 
century, John IV. sent a large sum of money to Istria, to be employed in 
the ransom of prisoners ; and John VI. imitated his example, when Gri- 
sulph, the Lombard duke of Benevento, had led away many captives from 
Campania. Paul I., in the following century, paid the debts of prisoners 
out of his own purse. St. Paschal I. built, at his own expense, a house 
for the reception and entertainment of English pilgrims, in place of another 
which had been destroyed by fire. Even in the tenth century this attri- 
bute of the pontifical office did not fail. Among the praises of Marinus 
II., is recorded his generosity to the poor. Benedict VII. is described 
as a lover of the poor. In the fifteenth century (not to weary the reader 
with specifications in each age), Eugenius IV., Nicholas V,, Callistus III., 
are all commended for liberality towards the poor of Christ. Clement 
VIII., a Pontiff" of the sixteenth century, always entertained twelve poor 
men at his table. Innocent X., in the following age, exercised extraordi- 
nary generosity to the poor, not confining his alms to the large sum of 
100,000 crowns, which his predecessors had been wont to distribute every 
year, but adding many large donations, especially to families burdened 
with children. The Romans asked leave of Alexander VII. to erect a 
statue, in order to perpetuate the memory of his charity, which was mani- 
fested in an extraordinary degree when famine and pestilence prevailed. 
The Pontiff humbly declined the proffered honor, telling them with his usual 
grace and dignity, that he desired no monument but the kind remembrance 
which they cherished in their hearts. Innocent XII. called the poor his 
nephews, and bequeathed to them whatever might result from the sale of 
the furniture of his palace after his death. On his return from Civita- 
vecchia, he was met by an immense multitude, who insisted on bearing on 
their shoulders the chair in which he rode. As this triumphal procession 
advanced to the gates of the eternal city, acclamations rent the air : " Be- 
hold ! our father comes — the father of the poor !" Clement XII. relieved 
the distress of four thousand Romans, who by a public conflagration, 



* Apub Euseb. 1. iv. hist. eccl. c. xxiii. 



f S. Basil, ep. Ixx. alias, ccxx. 



410 



MORAL IXFUENCE. 



were thrown houseless on the world. Benedict XIV. made a visit to the 
sick at Civitavecchia, waited on them, and gave each of them a small 
present. The same was done by his successor, Clement XIII., who also 
left proofs of his munificence with the prisoners whom he visited at Cor- 
neto, and devoted ten thousand crowns to the erection of a hospital for 
women, and a house of education for girls. Clement XIV. called the 
poor of Christ his family. The charity of Pius VI. was displayed in many 
instances, especially on occasion of public calamities, as when Bologna and 
other cities were visited by an earthquake, and the fortress of Civitavecchia 
was blown up by the accidental explosion of a gunpowder magazine. 

Leo XII., in our own age, has merited special praises for his solicitude 
for the poor; but, in truth, it is the general characteristic of all the Pon- 
tiffs, who, in this respect, most certainly have proved themselves worthy 
representatives of Him who became poor for our sake. 

The fortitude with which the Popes have struggled for truth and justice, 
cannot be considered a mere accidental virtue : it was, no doubt, a divine 
gift, bestowed on them in the person of Him who, from being a shaking 
reed, was made a rock of strength. The first three centuries saw a suc- 
cession of martys fill the papal chair: " During the persecutions/' says 
Banke, " the Bishops of Borne had exhibited extraordinary firmness and 
courage : their succession had often been rather to martyrdom and death 
than to office."* The Donatists endeavored to tarnish the lustre of the 
Holy See, by a groundless report that Marcellinus, whose pontificate closed 
the third century, had yielded to the persecutors, and offered incense to 
idols. The slander was indignantly rejected by St. Augustin, who saw no 
need of refuting what was supported by no proof. " What need have we," 
he cried, " to answer the charges brought by Petilian against the bishops 
of the Boman Church, whom he has attacked with incredible calumnies ? 
Alarcellinus and his priests are accused by him of having delivered up the 
divine books into the hands of the pagans, and offered incense to the idols : 
but does this prove them to be guilty ? is any authentic document pro- 
duced to show that they were convicted of the crime ? He declares them 
wicked and sacrilegious : I pronounce them innocent. ""j* 

It must appear strange that this calumny, embodied by some unknown 
writer in the forged acts of a Council supposed to have been held at Si- 
nuessa,J has crept into the Boman Breviary; but this is accounted for by 
the want of critical acumen at the time when some of the legends were in- 
serted. It matters not whether the forger of the acts designed evil or 
good by his clumsy contrivance. The compilers of the Breviary regarding 
them as genuine, and knowing that the personal prevarication of the Pon- 
tiff was possible, recorded it together with his penance and humiliation. 
The caution which is justly observed by the rulers of the Church, in ad- 



* History of the Popes, 1. i. ch. i. p. 29, American edition, 
t L. de unico bapt. contra Petil. 

j Rocea di Zvlondragone, a fortress in the kingdom of Naples, and built on its site. 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



411 



mitting any change in the liturgy and office, has prevented the correction 
of this and some few other errors, which, although blemishes, detract hut 
little from the general excellence of this beautiful compilation. 

Even under Christian emperors, the Popes continued to suffer from 
time to time for the integrity of faith, which they intrepidly maintained. 
The fortitude of Liberius, in the imperial audience at Milan, has been 
already described, and his constancy, whilst an exile and a prisoner, vindi- 
cated. Silverius, in the sixth century, finding himself the object of 
calumny and violence, on account of his known orthodoxy, after prayer to 
God, put himself in the hands of the general Belisarius, who, in compliance 
with the wishes of the heretical empress, led him into exile, where he died 
of famine. In the following century, Martin I. gained the martyr's crown 
by a similar career of suffering. 

To come to recent times, the fortitude of Pius VI. in the maintenance 
of the cause of religion, which was assailed by the infidel government of the 
French Revolution, is worthy of all admiration. When Napoleon, in the 
name of the French Republic, hovered over the Ecclesiastical States like a 
bird of prey, seeking to glut himself with human victims, the paternal 
heart of the Pontiff led him to make every concession. " Had we at- 
tempted any defence," he observed, " torrents of blood would have flowed 
to no purpose." The plate of his palace, with all that could be gathered 
from others, was sacrificed to pay the immense sum which the general, 
elate with his many victories, demanded \ and every humiliating condition 
was accepted : but when the infidel Directory insisted on his retracting 
the condemnation of the civil constitution of the clergy, the heroic Pius 
was inflexible: "The crown of martyrdom, " he observed, "is more bril- 
liant than the tiara." After immense sacrifices on his part the French, 
in violation of the treaty of Tolentino, took possession of his capital, and 
Cervoni, in mockery, presented him with the French cockade, promising 
him a pension, but he answered with dignity : " I care for no ornaments 
but those with which the Church has decorated me. You have full power 
over my body, but not over my soul, which defies your utmost efforts. I 
want no pension. A staff and the coarsest garment are enough for me, 
who, for the maintenance of the faith, am soon to expire on ashes." Cer- 
voni persisting in urging him to resign his temporal principality, and ac- 
cept a pension, the aged Pontiff replied : " My power comes by free elec- 
tion from God alone, and not from men, and I cannot and ought not to 
resign it. I am now near the eightieth year of my life, and have nothing 
to fear. Whatever violence and indignities may be committed against me 
by those in whose power I am, my soul is still free, and so resolute and 
courageous, that I am ready to meet death, rather than dishonor myself, 
or offend God." After separating the Pontiff from all his counsellors and 
friends, and pillaging his palace, Haller, a Swiss Calvinist, in the name 
of the French, intimated to him that he must quit Rome. Pius pleaded 
in vain the weight of his years, his infirmities, which at any moment 



412 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



might terminate in death, and his duty, which required him to remain. 
The brutal messenger told him he should be forced away, unless he con- 
sented. The afflicted Pontiff, after pouring out his complaints at the foot 
of the crucifix, bowed in homage to the divine will, and as he rose from 
prayer, exclaimed : " It is the will of God : His holy will be done : let us 
bow to His just decrees." As he descended the staircase, he was met by 
a criminal whom he had pardoned, but who, like Semei, exulting in the 
misfortunes of his sovereign, taunted him : " See, tyrant, your reign is at 
an end." Pius replied : " Were I a tyrant, you would not be alive." 
Thus he was hurried away from his capital. On his journey, he received 
a message of condolence from Ferdinand III., Grand Duke of Tuscany, on 
which occasion he observed : " My afflictions encourage me to hope that I 
am not altogether unworthy of being vicar of Jesus Christ, and successor 
of St. Peter. The situation in which you behold me, recalls to our minds 
the early ages of the Church, which were the days of her triumphs." When 
Charles Emmanuel IV., the exiled King of Turin, with his wife, visited 
him in his retreat at the Cistercian monastery near Florence, Pius ex- 
claimed : " All in this world is vanity. No one can say it more truly 
than we can. Yes : all is vanity, but to love and serve the Giver of every 
blessing. Let us raise our eyes to heaven, where thrones are prepared for 
us, of which men cannot deprive us." After a month, Pius was forced 
from this peaceful asylum, and, notwithstanding the testimony of medical 
men, given on oath, that travelling would expose his life to imminent 
danger, he was inhumanly dragged from place to place, without losing his 
patience, or sweetness of disposition. When he had reached Turin, and 
found himself obliged to travel still farther, he exclaimed : " The will of 
God be done. Let us go cheerfully whithersoever they please." As he 
was carried up the rugged heights of Mount Cenis, he appeared more 
happy than when borne on a chair of state in the solemn functions of the 
Vatican. The calm resignation and noble demeanor of the august prisoner 
struck with admiration a French Calvinist, who witnessed the eagerness 
with which the Catholics rushed to venerate him, as he was hurried on 
through France. A few days before his death at Valence, being pre- 
sented on the balcony of his residence to gratify the devotion of the faith- 
ful, he recalled to their minds the resemblance which he bore to his in- 
sulted and suffering Master, and then, for the last time, gave them his 
blessing. When about to receive the holy Eucharist, as a Viaticum, the 
officiating prelate having asked him whether he forgave his enemies, the 
holy Pontiff, raising his eyes to heaven, and then fixing them on a crucifix 
which he held in his hands, answered : " With all my heart." This was 
surely a glorious exhibition of fortitude, resignation, and triumphant 
charity. 

Pius VIL, although he displayed a tenderness towards Napoleon border- 
ing on indulgence, was, nevertheless, inflexible when faith or principle was 
in question. No effort could induce him to receive into favour the con- 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



413 



stitutional bishops, intruded into the episcopal Sees, until, by the retrac- 
tion of their errors, they had disposed themselves for pardon. No impor- 
tunities could avail to make him annul the marriage of Jerom, brother of 
the emperor, with a Protestant lady of Baltimore. 

The splendor of the tiara did not dazzle him. He professed himself 
ready to retire to a convent, or to seek a hiding-place in the catacombs, if 
the sacrifice of his personal rights could appease his persecutor. The offer 
of pensions and honors had no influence on his conduct : " We want," he 
said, "no pension — no honors. The alms of the faithful will suffice for 
our necessities. Other Popes have been as poor as we are." 

In maintaining the rights of his See, he was influenced by a sacred 
sense of duty. When the ministers of the emperor addressed him in his 
own palace, with threats of vengeance on their lips, should he resist the 
imperial will, he replied : " We have done every thing in our power, and 
we are still ready to do all things for harmony and peace, provided prin- 
ciple be safe. Our conscience is at stake, and we cannot sacrifice it, even 
were we to be flayed alive. Such is our natural disposition, that we 
become more inflexible when threats are addressed to us. We fear no- 
thing : we are ready for whatever may befall us." 

These heroic sentiments lose something of their grandeur, by the 
momentary weakness into which Pius, when a prisoner at Fontainebleau, 
was betrayed by the importunities of his advisers, who urged and almost 
forced him to subscribe the preliminaries of a treaty with Napoleon, which 
seriously compromised the rights of his office j but his speedy retraction, 
and his voluntary humiliation before the cardinals, changed the fault itself 
into an occasion of new merit. From that time he refused to enter into any 
terms, until he should be restored to liberty and to his capital. " It may 
be," he said, " that our sins render us unworthy to see Eome again, but 
our successors will recover the States which belong to our See. As to the 
rest, the emperor may be assured that we are not his enemy. Religion 
forbids it." 

God soon cast the mighty emperor from his throne, and raised up the 
humble Pontiff once more to the pinnacle of power. Napoleon, by a sin- 
gular disposition of Providence, was compelled to sign his abdication in 
the very room in which he had treated the venerable prisoner with irreve- 
rence. Pius entered Eome in triumph, amidst the enthusiastic acclama- 
tions of his devoted people. The brilliant illumination of the eternal city 
on the night of his return, rivalling the meridian blaze. In this miracu- 
lous change the devout Pontiff saw no occasion for self-complacency, and 
indulged no exultation over his fallen oppressor : on the contrary, he 
interceded with the British government in his behalf, to obtain the miti- 
gation of the rigors of his captivity, and sent a pious priest to console and 
sustain him by the succors of religion. The eagle which rose with so 
mu # ch pride and daring at Austerlitz, perished on the rock of St. Helena. 
Pius, notwithstanding his great age and sufferings, outlived Napoleon, and 



414 MORAL INFLUENCE. 

received the intelligence of his death with the feelings which became the 
fond father of a wayward child. 

Humility, likewise, was a favorite virtue of the Popes. This was specially 
manifested in the reluctance of many of them to accept the office. Leo 
IV. and Benedict III. were raised to it entirely against their will. Mar- 
tin IV. , with all his might, resisted the cardinals, who wished to enthrone 
him, so that his mantle was torn in the struggle. Emilio Altieri, at the 
age of eighty, was declared cardinal by Clement IX. as he lay on his 
dying couch, who foretold his elevation to the Popedom in the approach- 
ing conclave. When elected, he pleaded, with tears, his advanced age, 
and reluctantly yielded to the wishes of the sacred college. The eleventh 
Clement, during three days, refused to accept the proffered dignity, and 
actually fell sick in consequence of the excited state of his feelings. The 
positive declaration of four eminent divines, that he would sin grievously 
by continuing to resist the manifest will of God, at length determined his 
acceptance. Benedict XIII., who had thrice declined the purple, which 
he finally accepted in obedience to his religious superior, acted under the 
same orders in yielding to the unanimous vote of the sacred college. 
Clement XIII. burst into tears when the result of the election was com- 
municated to him. All of these humble Pontiffs seem left in the distance 
by the hermit Peter of Moroni, who reigned as Celestine V., but finding 
himself unequal to the government of the Church, descended from the 
throne, and sought again his loved retreat. Dante, in three words, has 
immortalized "this great abdication :" 

FECE IL GRAN RIFIUTO. 

The humility of manner of Innocent XL was such, that when he called 
for any of his servants, it was with the reservation, "if it was convenient 
to them;"* and Clement IX. would have no inscription on his tomb but 
the acknowledgment that he was dust : Clementis IX. cixeres. 

Purity of life, which is a necessary ornament of the priesthood, and 
which should be above all suspicion, especially in the representative of the 
Great High Priest, has ordinarily been the characteristic of the occupant 
of St. Peter's chair. To speak only at present of the last three centuries, 
Paul IV. and Pius V., his successor, were distinguished for the most 
unblemished virtue. Gregory XIV., according to the testimony of Banke, 
was "a soul of virgin innocence. "f Paul V. died with the reputation of 
having preserved his virginal integrity, saying as he breathed his soul into 
the hands of his Creator : "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." 
A year after his death, on the opening of his tomb, his body was found 
entire. Of Clement IX., Banke says : " all those virtues which consist in 
an absence of vices, such as purity of manners, modesty, temperance, he 



* Ranke, History of the Popes, L viii. § xvi. p. 213. 
f Ibidem, L vi. § iv. p. 429. - 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



415 



possessed in an eminent degree."* The same unsuspicious witness testifies 
of Innocent XL, that he was " of such purity of heart and life, that his 
confessor declared that he had never discovered in him any thing which 
could sever the soul from God."f Benedict XIII., heir of the dukedom 
of Gravina, through love of holy purity, had consecrated himself to God 
in the order of St. Dominic at the early age of eighteen. " Clement 
(XIII.) was a man of pure soul and pure intentions : he prayed much and 
fervently."J These are specimens of the general character of the Popes. 
The good odor of Jesus Christ was spread abroad by most of those who 
occupied the papal chair. 

§ 3. RECOGNISED SANCTITY. 

Eminent holiness distinguished most of the incumbents of the Apostolic 
See, which, on this account, as well as for the purity of its doctrine, may be 
justly styled holy. Besides the martyrs of the first three ages, and some of 
later times, many others are enrolled in the catalogue of saints. The sanctity 
of seventy-nine Pontiffs is recognised by the Church, being almost a third of 
the entire series. They are not confined to the first six ages, although Gib- 
bon has strangely asserted of the apostle of England, that "Gregory is the 
last of their own order whom they have presumed to inscribe in the calen- 
dar of saints. "§ The two Gregories, who adorned the eighth century, 
receive the same honor. The sanctity of the former so impressed Luit- 
prand, the Lombard king, as he stood in a menacing attitude at the gate 
of Rome, that he abandoned the siege, and entered to worship at the tomb 
of St. Peter, as the infidel historian himself testifies: "In arms, at the 
gate of the Vatican, the conqueror listened to the voice of Gregory the 
Second, withdrew his troops, resigned his conquests, respectfully visited 
the Church of St. Peter, and, after performing his devotions, offered his 
sword and dagger, his cuirass and mantle, his silver cross and his crown 
of gold, on the tomb of the apostle." || St. Zachary, the successor of the 
third Gregory, persuaded Rachis, who occupied the throne of Luitprand, 
to exchange the battle-field and palace for the cloister. Paschal I. is 
recognised as a saint. Benedict V., who sat as Pontiff in the decline of 
the tenth century, and had the gift of prophecy, is mentioned in several 
martyrologies. 

In the eleventh century, St. Leo IX. brought to the papal throne great 
purity of life, with apostolic zeal. Stephen X., Victor III., and Urban 
II., are named among the blessed in several martyrologies. St. Alexan- 
der II. labored to raise the clergy to that holiness of life, of which he gave _ 
the example; but above all the Pontiffs of that age, St. Gregory VII. 
shines with bright lustre, for the intrepidity and perseverance with which 



* History of the Popes, vol. ii. p. 158. f Ibidem, 1. viii. § xvii. p. 225. 

% Ibidem, § xviii. p. 236. § History of the Decline and Fall, &c, ch. xlv. A. D. 590. 
jj Ibidem, ch. xlix., A. D. 730-752. 



416 



MORAL INFLUENCE. 



he strove to purify the sanctuary, and revive the apostolic spirit in its 
ministers. St. Celestine V. adorned the thirteenth century. Benedict 
XL, who reigned in the early part of the following age, is styled Blessed 
in the Roman martyrology. 

The sixteenth century was edified by the austere virtues of St. Pius V. 
From earliest youth he was devoted to the service of God, and in the 
highest station he " preserved all his austerity, poverty, and humility."* 
He is the last of the Popes whose names have been enrolled among the 
Saints, although since his time, as well as before, many not canonized 
have been eminent for holiness of life. 



* Ranke, History of the Popes, 1. iii. g viii. p. 217. 



CHAPTER IX. 

The charges brought against the Popes are, in many instances, totally 
destitute of foundation. In the fifth century, a schismatical rival accused 
Symmachus of many crimes : of which, however, he was declared innocent 
by a council, to which he voluntarily submitted the cause for examination. 

The first serious scandal that occurs in the papal history, took place at 
the close of the ninth century, when Stephen, who had forcibly taken 
possession of the See, offered indignities to the corpse of Formosus, the 
deceased Pontiff, by cutting off the fingers with which he was wont to 
bless the Roman people. The barbarity of this act, which reflects dis- 
grace on the age in which it was perpetrated, cannot be extenuated by the 
plea then put forward to justify it, namely, that Formosus had violated 
the canons, through immoderate ambition, by passing from the See of 
Porto to that of Rome. His promotion appears to have been the just 
reward of a long life of virginal purity and Apostolic zeal. The outrage 
offered to his memory was atoned for by the solemn act of a Roman Council 
under John IX. It may relieve our feelings somewhat from the horror 
of this outrage, to know that it was committed by an intruder into the 
See, not by one who entered by canonical election j and though his name 
still appears on the list of Popes, Graveson, a judicious historian, disputes 
the propriety of its insertion. In the scarcity of documents of that period, 
and in the confusion which was caused by the violent struggles of secular 
nobles for the mastery of the Church, it is in some cases difficult to dis- 
tinguish with certainty, whether the intrusion was remedied by the sub- 
sequent acquiescence of the canonical electors. These may have yielded 
to the dire necessity of the times, and borne the shame of tolerating an un- 
worthy incumbent in the apostolic chair, rather than endanger the unity 
of the Church, by an effort to expel him from a place which he had no right 
to occupy. We must, in such circumstances, remember, with St. Leo, 
that the merit of Peter does not totally fail in the unworthy heir of his 
authority j* and with St. Augustine, that occasion of schism must not be 
taken from the bad examples of those who are in high station: "of 
which/' he says, " our Heavenly Master so carefully forewarned us, as to 
give the people an assurance in regard to bad prelates, lest on their account 
the chair of saving doctrine should be abandoned, in which even bad men 



* Serm. II. de assumpt. sua ad pontif. 
27 



417 



418 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



are forced to utter what is good : for what they say is not their own : it is 
of God, who has placed the doctrine of truth in the chair of unity/'* 

The moral character of Sergius III. is grievously assailed by Luitprand, 
a contemporary author, whose testimony, however, is weakened by his 
known adherence to a schismatical rival of John XII., and his devotedness 
to the imperial interests. Flodoard, another contemporary writer, repre- 
sents Sergius as a favorite with the Roman people, and a kind pastor of 
the flock. It is doubtful whether Lando, whose character is also traduced, 
should be ranked among the Popes. John X. is charged with licentious- 
ness, and with having been accessary to the death of Benedict VII. : but 
Baronius, who believed the charges, admits that his administration was 
better than the means used for his promotion would have led us to expect. 
Muratori, who with great independence of mind, canvassed facts of his- 
tory, praises him as a worthy Pontiff, f He also proves J that John XI. 
was son of Albericus, Roman consul, and marquis of Tuscany, although 
Luitprand brands him as a bastard-son of Sergius. Ratherius of Verona 
bears testimony to the noble and excellent disposition of John, whom he 
styles, "gloriosae indolis." John XII., of the same family, at the age of 
sixteen or eighteen years, seized on the papal crown, and wore it without 
shame during seven years, in which he is said to have indulged the worst 
excesses. The account of his death is marked with the character of fable. 
The following century witnessed similar scandals in Theophylact, son of 
Alberic, count of Tusculum, who, whilst yet a youth, was intruded into 
the chair of St. Peter by bribery and family influence, and thence ejected 
several times by the Romans, weary of his disorders, till at length he 
resigned all pretensions to the See, and passed to the monastery of Grotta 
Ferrata, to expiate his sins by penance. Benedict IX. is his name among 
the pontiffs. 

The struggles for the Papacy in those evil times, were sometimes fierce 
and sanguinary, the power of the petty potentate, who ruled at Rome as 
patrician, being often employed in behalf of some member of his family, 
or some corrupt favorite. The occupant of the chair held it by a very 
uncertain tenure, and was not unfrequently cast into a dungeon to make 
room for a successful rival. If such horrors affright us, we should reflect 
on the general state of Italy at that period, when Saracens and other bar- 
barians spread desolation around, imparting to the oppressed Italians some- 
thing of their own savage character. The rival princes when unrestrained 
by the imperial power, which during forty years had been suspended, knew 
no limits to their ambition, and rushed wildly into excesses which make 
us shudder. We need not be surprised, that daring and licentious men 
under such circumstances were sometimes seen to occupy the highest 



* Ep. cv., alias clxvii., c. v. n. 16. f Annali d'ltalia, an. 928. 

J He quotes : Anonymus Salernitanus, in chron. c. cxliii., et Ostiensis, in chr. casin., 
1. i. c. lxi. 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



419 



places in the church : but we must admire the overruling providence of 
God, which preserved the succession of chief pastors, and gave from time 
to time bright examples of Christian virtue. The tenth century numbers 
Theodore, Benedict IV., Anastasius III., and Marin II., among the occu- 
pants of St. Peter's See, men worthy of their Apostolical calling; and the 
eleventh justly boasts of a brighter line of holy pontiffs.. The scandals of 
those ages menaced indeed with destruction the church, which drifted like 
a shattered vessel, whose pilot had no power or care to direct her course, 
whilst wave on wave dashed over her, and no light beamed on her but the 
lightning flash, as bolt after bolt struck her masts : but He who controls 
the tempest slept within her, and in His own good time, He bade the 
storm be still, and all was calm and sunshine. 

To the causes which produced conflict and disorder we must add national 
jealousy and love of independence. "The Germans," says Voltaire, 
"held the Romans in subjection, and the Romans sought every oppor- 
tunity to break their chains. A Pope chosen by the order of the emperor, 
or named by him, was an object of execration to the Romans. The idea 
of restoring the republic was cherished by them : but this noble ambition 
produced only humiliating and frightful results.* 

The charges of ambition, arrogance, and impetuosity, which have been 
made against Boniface VIIL, do not appear to be well founded. If he 
advised the holy Pontiff Celestine to abdicate an office to whose duties he 
was inadequate, it need not be ascribed to secret aspirations after the tiara, 
for which, however, his eminent knowledge and determination of character 
qualified him. The imprisonment of the unambitious hermit, which has 
brought censure on Boniface, may have been necessary to guard against 
the wiles of bad men, who might abuse his simplicity to cause a schism, 
by persuading him that he could not lawfully part with the power which 
God had committed to him. In the proceedings against Philip the Fair, 
Boniface contended for justice and the immunities of the Church, advancing 
no claim which his predecessors had not put forward, and proceeding with 
the deliberation and maturity which always distinguish the Holy See. 
When the emissaries of the monarch prepared to seize on his person, he 
acted with composure and dignity, declaring, that like his Divine Master, 
he was betrayed, but that he would die as a Pope; with which view he 
robed himself in the ornaments of his ministry, and, wrapped in his pon- 
tifical mantle, with the tiara on his head, the keys in one hand and the 
cross in the other, he awaited, with majestic air, the approach of the rebel 
Colonna, and the daring Nogaret. It is not surprising that the indignities 
offered to his sacred person should have resulted in his death ; but the dis- 



* It must be acknowledged, that the worst scandals of those times were given by 
Romans, or other Italians, raised to that high eminence by the prejudices and partiality 
of their countrymen, or still more by the swords of their kinsfolk : and that the splendor 
and glory of the pontificate were restored by Popes of German origin, or who rose to office 
under imperial favor and protection. 



420 



CHARGES AGAINST THE TOPES. 



covery of his body entire three centuries afterwards, was a splendid refu- 
tation of the fable that he had died in the writhings of despair. In the 
person of this magnanimous Pontiff, God gave us the example of noble 
demeanor under wrongs, that resemble the insults of the pretorian hall, 

To hide with direr guilt 
Past ills and future, lo ! the flower-de-luce 
Enters Alagna, in His vicar, Christ 
Himself a captive, and His mockery 
Acted again. Lo ! to His holy lip 
The vinegar and gall once more applied; 

And He twixt living robbers doomed to bleed. — Cary's Translation.* 

The memory of Clement V. comes down to us charged with having 
ambitiously intrigued for the tiara, by promising to Philip the Fair to re- 
scind the acts of Boniface, and to condescend to his will on some important 
point, not then disclosed. This compact originally rests on the au- 
thority of Villani, a partisan of the schismatical Louis of Bavaria. On 
the same suspicious testimony, his supposed amours with the countess of 
Perigord have been too lightly credited, notwithstanding the silence of his 
early biographers, six in number. But the suppression of the Knights 
Templars, which resulted in the capital punishment of a large number of 
them, by the authority of Philip, was a measure of fearful responsibility, 
the justice of which is an historical problem, perhaps never to be solved. 
His permission for the opening of the process against the memory of Boni- 
face, which is objected to him as an act of criminal condescension, was 
probably given in the confidence that it would result, as in fact it did, in 
his entire acquittal. " All this grand display of Philip the Fair," it is 
Voltaire who speaks, " resulted in his shame. On the great theatre of the 
world, you will never see a king of France prevail, in the end, over a 
Pope."* Villani has attacked the moral character of Clement VI., but I 
feel dispensed from vindicating it, whilst it is assailed only by the pro- 
fessed enemy of the lawful Pontiffs. 

The sudden death of Paul II., who was found dead in his bed, arose 
from an unwholesome supper on melons ; and was not attended with any 
disgraceful circumstances. Although his life was not austere, there is 
not any ground for censuring his conduct, unless, perhaps, his failure to 
observe the conditions to which, in common with the other cardinals in 
conclave, he had bound himself. This, however, may be accounted for by 
the necessity of his situation, in which he deemed it injurious to observe 

* Perche men paja il mal futuro e'l fatto, 
Veggio in Alagna entrar lo fiordaliso, 
E nel vicario suo Cristo esser catto. 

Veggiolo un altra volta esser deriso ; 
Veggio rinnovelar l'aceto eT fele, 
E tra vivi ladroni essere anciso. 

Dante, Purgatorio, c. XX. 85. 

* Essai sur l'Histoire" Generale, t. ii. ch. lxi. 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



421 



restrictions unwisely imposed on an authority which Christ willed to be 
free. Above a century before, Innocent VI. had declared such engage- 
ments to be radically null. 

Of two Popes, it is certain that previously to their entrance into orders, 
they had become fathers, either by secret marriages, as some contend, or 
out of wedlock. John Baptist Cibo, son of a Roman senator, who was 
made Viceroy of Naples, had two children by a Neapolitan lady, whilst 
living in his father's court. Ciaconi affirms that she was his lawful wife. 
He afterwards entered the ecclesiastical career, in which his conduct won 
general esteem, and secured his promotion to the episcopacy, and, finally, 
to the government of the Universal Church. Innocent VIII., as he was 
thenceforward called, during the first five years of his pontificate, mani- 
fested no peculiar tenderness to his children, Franceschetto Cibo and 
Theodorina : which provoked the remonstrances of Lorenzo de Medicis, 
then esteemed the wisest man in Italy, but whose judgment may have 
been warped in this instance by the marriage of his son with Theodorina. 
The Pontiff proved himself thenceforward an indulgent parent, and freely 
bestowed on his offspring the riches of the Church, for which he has de- 
served censure. 

Paul III. owned as his son Pier Luigi Farnese, who was alleged to be 
the fruit of a secret marriage, before his father entered into orders. His 
grandson Alexander was promoted to the purple, which he adorned by 
his virtues. Paul was truly a great Pontiff", whose administration was 
most advantageous to the Church : but the lustre of his reign was tarnished 
by family attachments. 

Two others are admitted to have fallen into temptation before entering 
the ecclesiastical state. The ardor of the martial Julius II. betrayed him 
in youth into excess, of which a daughter was the acknowledged fruit. 
Her children were promoted to the purple. Since St. Francis de Paula 
is known to have foretold to him his elevation to the papal throne, we 
have reason to believe, that after his entrance into orders, his morals were 
blameless. Ugo Buoncompagno, a jurist of Bologna, who rose into life in 
the civil service, had a son born out of wedlock. He afterwards entered 
the sanctuary, in which he acquired esteem for integrity and talent, and, 
at the age of seventy, he was chosen to fill St. Peter's chair, under the 
name of Gregory XIII. Ranke acknowledges that " his life and conver- 
sation were not only blameless, but edifying/'* This being the case, it is 
extreme rigour to make the frailty of his early life a subject of reproach 
to him as Pontiff, whilst his subsequent course was so exemplary. No 
one thinks of disparaging the high character of St. Augustin on account 
of the disorders of his youth. In estimating the moral influence of the 
Popes, we should consider especially their public administration, and their 



History of the Popes, 1. iv. § iii. p. 255. 



422 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



personal conduct whilst in office, in connection with their whole ecclesias- 
tical career. 

The censures which have been passed on Leo X., have no other founda- 
tion than the amenity of his manners, his partiality for poets, whose com- 
positions were not always strictly governed by rules of propriety, his fond- 
ness for musical entertainments, and other peculiarities, some of which 
were scarcely consistent with the gravity of a bishop burdened with the 
solicitude of all the churches. " Leo's gay and graceful court," says 
Eanke, " was not in itself deserving of censure : yet it were impossible to 
deny that it was little answerable to the character and position of head of 
the Church."* Luther and Erasmus both bore testimony to the integrity 
of his morals. He had his practices of mortification and self-denial, espe- 
cially the weekly fast of Saturday, and he performed the sacred functions, 
as Eoscoe testifies, with dignity and decorum. 

John Baptist Pamfili, at the age of seventy-two, was elevated to the 
popedom under the title of Innocent X., an honor which St. Felix of 
Cantalicio had predicted. There is no foundation whatever for any charge 
against his morals, although he entrusted the management of his palace to 
his aged sister-in-law, and deferred too much to her caprice. u In his 
earlier career in the Eota, as nuncio, and as cardinal, he had shown him- 
self industrious, blameless, and upright, and this reputation he still pre- 
served.""!" Such is the impartial testimony of Eanke, who explains the 
motives which influenced his conduct in regard to Donna Olimpia. " Pope 
Innocent was under obligations to his sister-in-law, Donna Olimpia Malda- 
chini, of Yiterbo, especially in consequence of the large fortune she had 
brought into the house of Pamfili. He also regarded it as a high merit on 
her part, that after the death of his brother, she had never chosen to 
marry again. This had been productive of advantage to himself, since he 
had constantly left the economical affairs of the family to her guidance ; 
it was, therefore, no wonder if she now acquired great influence in the 
administration of the papacy."f 

There is one Pope, however, who seems to have no advocate to attempt 
his justification,? and but few to offer any thing in mitigation of sentence. 

* History of the Popes, 1. i. ch. ii. p. 61. j Ibidem, vol. ii. L viii. § v. p. 150. 

j Audin, in his Life of Leo XI, has almost ventured. In the lives of the Popes by Pla- 
tina, a highly favorable account is given of Alexander YI. and his administration. As 
the historian died in 1481, this sketch, and the preceding, as also that of Pius III., must 
have been added to his work, in order to continue it down to the reigning Pontiff. The 
edition before me is of Lyons, 1512. The writer charges Alexander with having changed 
policy in regard to Charles VJLLL, and mentions Cesar (under the title of Yalentinus) as 
his son : but praises him for industry, ability, and zeal, as also for his patronage of learned 
men, and aversion to flatterers. " Felix igitur tanto pontifice Roma . . . quern oseitan- 
tem raro comperit quisque, quin aut libris legendis, aut divino cultui, aut rei Christianae 
semper attentus esset: temporis jactura nihil perniciosius Eestimans." This character is 
given of him at a time when the memory of his reign was fresh and vivid. He died in 
1503. Roscoe says much in extenuation of his vices. (Life of Leo, vol. i. ch. vi.) Guic- 
ciardini and Paolo Giovio, almost contemporary writers, but both of them exceptionable, 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



423 



Roderico Lenzuoli, nephew by his mother to Callistus III., was allowed 
by his too-indulgent uncle to assume the family name of Borgia, only to 
attach to it indelible disgrace. The levity of his conduct had provoked 
reproof from Pius II., but his splendid talents and fascinating manners 
served to conceal, or partially to redeem his vices. While cardinal, occu- 
pying offices of the highest confidence, he became the father of four chil- 
dren, by a Roman lady of noble family; notwithstanding which enormous 
scandal, he was chosen, at the age of sixty-one, to occupy the Papal chair. 
His election is alleged to have been accomplished by bribery. Cesar, his 
favorite son, was promoted to the office of cardinal deacon, but soon re- 
leased from his obligations, that he might pursue, unrestrained by con- 
siderations of decorum, a career better suited to his passions and ambition. 
His brother, Peter Louis, was assassinated, not without suspicion of the 
murder being cast on Cesar, although most probably without foundation. 
The accomplished Lucretia sat for a time in her father' s palace, and in- 
curred the foulest censure, as if living in the habitual indulgence of the 
most unnatural incest : a stain which Roscoe has generously removed.* 
As Duchess of Ferrara she was esteemed not only for her pure and refined 
manners, but her literary taste, which was manifested in her patronage of 
learning, and obtained for her a distinguished place among those who con- 
tributed to the revival of letters. f The death of Sizim, brother of Baja- 
zet, the sultan, which occurred shortly after he had been delivered up by 
Alexander to Charles VIII., was ascribed to slow poison, administered to 
him by order of the Pontiff : but this most improbable surmise deserves 
no attention. " Prince Cantemir says that his barber cut his throat. 
Prince Cantemir and the accusers of Alexander VI. may be mistaken. 
The hatred entertained for this Pontiff led men to charge him with 
every crime which he could commit/'J His apologist is Voltaire, 
who indignantly rejects the tale of his having drunk by mistake 
poison prepared by his orders for a cardinal, whose wealth he coveted. 
The journal of the attending physician certifies that he died of fever, after 
having received the last sacraments. § A Spanish critic observes, that the 
popular hatred no doubt gave rise to most exaggerated reports ;|| which 
Mariana, the great historian, also remarks, hinting, however, that some 
things were true, while others were calumnies. "We must, however, ac- 
knowledge that his elevation was disgraceful, and his government calami- 
tous. In several instances he indeed made wise decrees, and patronized 

load him with obloquy. Chacon, who wrote in the decline of the sixteenth century, thinks 
the charges doubtful : " lapsus fortasse non veros." 

* Life and Pontificate of Leo the Tenth, vol. ii. Dissertation on Lucretia Borgia. See 
also Life of Leo the Tenth, vol. i. ch. vi. 

f See Francesco Patrizi, Ded dellamil. rom. Also Roscoe, Diss. 

J Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, t. iii. eh. ciii. 

g Dissert, sur la mort d'Henri IV., also Essai sur l'Hist., ch. cvii. 

|| Teatro Critico por D. Fr. B. G. Feijoo, t. iv., disc. viii. p. 212. 
Historia de Espana, 1. xxvi. c. i. 



424 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



learning j and the military genius of Cesar contributed to the strength of 
his civil sovereignty : yet it was an enormous scandal to the Christian 
world that an immoral man should occupy the Holy See, and cherish, with 
the blindness of parental love, a licentious and daring soldier.* In such 
circumstances, the faithful understood the force of the warning of Christ, 
that we should do what we are taught by those who fill the chair of au- 
thority, but should not imitate their perverse actions. 

As temporal sovereigns of the Roman States, the Popes have incurred 
much censure, although they have been truly the fathers of their people. 
Several of them deserve the praise of great as well as good princes. The 
clemency of Paul I. toward criminals is marked on the page of history ; 
and his successor, Hadrian, receives commendation for the exercise of the 
same most comely attribute of sovereignty. 

" No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, 
Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword, 
The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's rohe, 
Become them with one-half so good a grace 
As mercy does."f 

Of Hadrian, Gibbon writes : " He secretly edified the throne of his 
successors, and displayed in a narrow space the virtues of a great prince." J 
Of those who seized the pontificate in the tenth century, Yoltaire remarks : 
" Those Popes whom posterity has branded as immoral, were far from being 
incapable princes. John X. was a man of genius and courage, and accom- 
plished what his predecessors had never been able to effect, having driven 
the Saracens from that part of Italy called Garillan."§ With better 
reason he praises Martin V., who combined the high qualities of a prince 
with the virtues of a bishop. || Paul II. united justice with clemency, not 
suffering crime to go unpunished, and yet condemning no one to death. 
Clement VII. was a sovereign worthy of his name. 

Some Popes are accused of extreme severity in the punishment of 
crime. The mode of the death of some cardinals convicted of conspiracy 
against Urban VI., is revolting to our sense of humanity; yet Leo X., a 
Pontiff of acknowledged humanity, condemned to death some others on a 

* Roscoe says of Cesar Borgia : " Courageous, munificent, eloquent, and accomplished 
in all the exercises of arts and arms, he raised an admiration of his endowments, which 
kept pace with and counterbalanced the abhorrence excited by his crimes. That even 
these crimes have been exaggerated is highly probable. His enemies were numerous, and 
the certainty of his guilt in some instances gave credibility to every imputation that could 
be devised to tbrow his character into deeper shade. That he retained, even after he sur- 
vived his prosperity, no inconsiderable share of public estimation, is evident from the 
fidelity and attachment shown him on many occasions." — Life of Leo X., vol. ii. ch. vi. 
The historian had already stated the attachment of the cities of Romagna to Cesar, whose 
rule they preferred to that of their former princes, on account of his strict administration 
of justice, and the repression of banditti. 

f Measure for Measure. % Decline and Pall, &c, ch. xlix., A. D. 800. 

$ Essai sur l'Histoire Generale, ch. xxxi. - J| Ibid., ch. lxviii. 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



425 



similar charge. Treason against the sovereign is everywhere the highest 
crime against society, and is punished in a manner to strike all with horror. 
The natural character of Sixtus Y. seems to have been humane, since 
" when his nephew, the husband of Vittoria Accorambuoni, was murdered, 
he was the first to entreat the Pope to let the investigation drop."* As 
sovereign of the Koman States, he appeared invested with terrific attri- 
butes, because the ravages of the banditti that overspread the country 
required an extraordinary exercise of justice, and the encroachments of 
the nobles provoked measures of repression. "After chastising the 
offending feudatories, he sought rather to conciliate and attach the other 
barons, "f 

Sixtus IV. has been charged with participating in the diabolical con- 
spiracy of the Pazzi, a noble family of Florence, which resulted in the 
assassination of Julian de Medicis, at solemn mass in the Dome of 
Florence. The presence of the nephew of the Pope, Cardinal Raffaello 
Riario, on the occasion, and his known partiality for the Pazzi, are the 
only grounds for suspecting his concurrence to the nefarious plot j which 
his general character, as well as the sanctity of his station, forbid us to 
suppose. Blame is ascribed to him for his solicitude to maintain the tem- 
poral interests of his See, which, however, as a sovereign, he was bound 
to guard. In reference to the disputed territory of Rovigno, in Rornagna, 
Ranke observes : " The other powers of Italy were already contending for 
possession, or for ascendency, in these territories ; and, if there were any 
question of right, the Pope had manifestly a better right than any other."! 
The imputation of bad faith toward his allies seems unfounded. He had 
solicited the aid of the Venetians to repel the attack of the King of 
Naples, who afterward, by his unconditional submission, took away all 
legitimate pretext for continuing hostilities. Sixtus then besought the 
Venetians to desist from the siege of Ferrara, the duke of that place being 
son-in-law of the king. When his entreaties proved unavailing, he found 
himself under the necessity of joining the other Italian princes in a league 
against his former allies ; and, by the advice of a Council held at Cremona, 
he excommunicated the Venetians for opposing the peace of Italy, which 
was always dear to his heart. 

Julius II. incurred censure for similar causes. In maintaining his tem- 
poral rights, he displayed great determination of character, and military 
courage, not easily reconcilable with his office. as representative of the 
Prince of Peace. Justice, however, was on his side ; and his patriotism, 
which never suffered him to falter in his resolution to drive the barbarians 
beyond the Alps, has gained the admiration of Voltaire himself. § His 
change of policy does not imply a breach of faith. When his French 
allies seemed disposed to remain as conquerors, where they had appeared 



* Ranke, History of the Popes, L iv. §iv. p. 267. f Ibidem, $ vi. p. 271. 

t Ibidem, 1. i. ch. ii. p. 47, vol. i. £ Lettre a Mr. JSorberg, t. viii. 



426 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



only to aid him in the recovery of his dominions, it was not inconsistent 
with his engagements, to join the Venetians, after their submission, in 
order to force back the French to their own territories, since he never 
meant to sacrifice the independence of Italy. His princely qualities are 
witnessed by Ranke : " He endeavored everywhere to appear as a libera- 
tor: he treated his new subjects wisely and well, and secured their attach- 
ment and fidelity."* 

It may be difficult to satisfy all readers of the justice of the measures 
which the Pontiffs, in their capacity of sovereigns, have from time to time 
adopted; nor is it necessary that they should meet our approval. "We 
must distinguish/' as Voltaire well observes, "the Pontiff from the 
sovereign." - )- As Catholics, we are not concerned with the temporal ad- 
ministration of the Roman States, and need not inquire whether it has 
been just and paternal, or whether the sovereign has maintained the proper 
relations to foreign powers. Even the personal character of the Popes no 
further interests us than as we should naturally desire that the Chief 
Bishop of the Church should sustain the purity of the Christian law by 
the influence of his example. Thanks be to Heaven, the general conduct 
of the successors of Peter has been worthy of their station, and may well 
be referred to as serving to recommend that authority, which they have 
exercised for the interests of truth and piety. 

Partiality for their relatives, whom they employed in offices of high im- 
portance with great revenues, has brought censure on several of the Popes, 
whose personal conduct was blameless. Nepotism, as this vice is tech- 
nically styled, has caused, no doubt, great evils to the Church ; but it is so 
natural to favor our own kindred, that it should not be condemned too 
severely, unless the individuals be unworthy. In fact, we owe to the fond 
affection of Pius IV. for his nephew, Charles Borromeo, the immense ad- 
vantages which the Church at large derived from his labors and examples, 
in the high offices which his uncle lavished on him when but scarcely 
arrived at manhood. Had the holy Pontiff, Benedict XIII., called to his 
Council his relatives, who were persons of high probity and exemplary 
piety, the abuse which an upstart favorite made of his confidence, would 
have been avoided. Nevertheless, it is but rarely that relatives do not 
avail themselves of their position for self-aggrandizement; and several 
Pontiffs might say, at the close of a career otherwise illustrious, with Paul 
III. : " Had not my relatives ruled, I should have been without stain." 
The austere virtue of Paul IV. was not proof against the blinding influ- 
ence of kindred ties; and too late he discovered the iniquities and op- 
pression practised in his name by the Caraffas, whom he at once banished 
from his court, leaving to his successor, Pius IV., the sad oflice of con- 
demning one of them to an ignominious death. 

Many of the Popes evinced heroic detachment from flesh and blood, not 



* History of the Popes, 1. in ch. ii. p. '52. 



f Ubi supra. 



CHARGES AGAINST THE POPES. 



427 



being willing that the natural ties should contract their hearts, which were 
made to embrace the entire world. Clement IV. and Martin IV. were 
distinguished for this virtue. When the brother of Martin repaired to 
court, the Pope dismissed him, with a small gift to meet the expenses of 
his journey, observing that he could not employ the riches of the Church 
as if they were his paternal estate. Leo XL, during a short pontificate 
of seventeen days, gave evidence of an inflexible determination to indulge 
no human affection with danger to the interests of religion, since he 
resisted the pressing solicitations of the cardinals to raise his nephew to 
their rank. The eleventh Innocent, during thirteen years of pontifical 
administration, kept himself free from all imputation of inordinate attach- 
ment to his relatives. Innocent XII., who called the poor his nephews, 
made stringent decrees against nepotism. Clement XL, his successor, 
who during eleven years deferred the promotion of his relatives, although 
they were men of distinguished merit, on his deathbed could say with 
truth, that conscience alone had regulated his course in their regard. 
When the learned and facetious Lambertini was raised to the pontifical 
throne, under the name of Benedict XIV., he ordered his nephew, who 
was a senator of Bologna, not to come to Rome until invited, and he took 
care never to give the invitation. Clement XIV. could not be prevailed 
on to send special messengers to apprise his three sisters of his elevation, 
observing that they were not wont to receive ambassadors, and that the 
poor of Christ were his family. No one could prevail on him to admit 
any of his relatives to his presence, or to send them any gift. Pius VII. 
and Leo XII., among the Pontiffs of our own age, have merited the praise 
of similar detachment. When Pius VIII. was chosen to fill St. Peter's 
chair, he wrote affectionate letters to his nephews, warning them, however, 
not to indulge in any pomp or pride, but to pray to God in his behalf. 
" Let none of you/' said he, " leave his dwelling or post. We love you 
in God." 

I shall now relieve the reader from this prolonged investigation, with an 
•appeal to his conscience, whether there ever has existed any series of 
rulers in the Church or in the State, so illustrious as the succession of 
Roman Bishops. They have been the defenders of the faith, the fathers 
of the poor, the friends of order and virtue, and the benefactors of society. 
While intent on executing the divine commission to teach all nations, they 
have not considered it inconsistent with their sublime office to cherish 
genius and reward industry, fostering art, literature, and science, with a 
partiality that might appear extreme. If a cloud has sometimes passed 
over that See, which shines in the Church like the sun in the firmament, 
it soon passed away, and left the world in admiration of its undiminished 
splendor. Sooner shall the orb of day be extinguished, than the prayer 
of Christ for Peter fail. 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



FIRST CENTURY. 

1. St. Peter from the East, where lie founded the See of Antioch, 

passed to Rome j returned to the East when the Jews were expelled 
by Claudius ; returned to Rome, and died a martyr with St. Paul, 
on 29th June, 66* 

2. St. Linus M.f He died a martyr in 67. Rerti says in 76. — Eccl. 

Hist. Rrev. 

3. St. Anacletus M.J 

4. St. Clement M.§ 

SECOND CENTURY. 

5. St. Evaristus M. sat to 108. 

6. St. Alexander M, sat from 2 March, 108, to 3 May, 116. 

7. St. Sixtus I. M. sat from 116 to 3 July, 126. 

8. St. Telesphorus M. died in 137. 

9. St. Hyginls M. died 10 January, 141. 

10. St. Pius I. sat ten years, four months, and three days. 

11. St. Anicetus M. During his pontificate Polycarp came to Rome, in 

158. Anicetus died in 161. 



* According to Foggini and Tilleniont. Pagi says, 65. The testimony of the ancient 
writers is unanimous as to the establishment of the Church of Rome by Peter and Paul, 
and as to their martyrdom at Rome. It is not easy, however, to determine the precise 
year of the first visit of Peter to Rome, or of the martyrdom of both apostles. 

j Tertullian (1. de prescript.) says that the Roman Church proves the succession of her 
bishops by pointing to Clement, ordained by Peter; but this does not necessarily imply 
that he was the immediate successor of the apostle. Irenaeus, who was prior to Tertul- 
lian, states distinctly that Linus received from Peter the administration of the Churchy 
and immediately succeeded him. 

J Cletus and Anacletus are found in ancient catalogues, and the learned are not agreed 
as to their identity. St Irenaeus makes no mention of Cletus, and styles Sixtus the sixth 
from the apostles, which excludes Cletus. Berti says that Cletus succeeded Linus, and 
died in 89. 

§ Clement is put before Anacletus in the list of St. Augustin (Ep. 1. iii. alias elv.,) and 
in the chronicle of Damasus. Berti says that Anacletus sat during the two years of the 
exile of Clement. I have followed Ireneeus. Pagi says that Clement governed from 67 
to 77, and then abdicated. Berti says that he sat from S9 to 9S, and after two years spent 
in banishment underwent martyrdom by drowning. His martyrdom is assigned to 23 
November, 10 

429 



430 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



12. St. Soter M. sat until 170. 

13. St. Eleutherius M. sat from 170 until 185 * 

14. St. Victor I. M. sat from 12th June, 185, until 28th July, 197. 

15. St. Zephyrinus M. sat from 7th August, 197, until 12th July, 217. 

THIRD CENTURY. 

16. St. Callistus I. M. sat from 217 until 28th September, 222. 

17. St. Urban I. M. sat from 222 until 24th May, 230. 

18. St. Pontian M. sat from 230 until 14th March, 235. 

19. St. Anteros M. sat from 21st November, 235, until 3d January, 

236. 

20. St. Fabian M. elected 11th January, 236, sat until 20th January, 

250. 

21. St. Cornelius M. died in banishment on 14th September, 252. St. 

Cyprian styles him martyr, he having been banished for the faith, 
although his death was not violent. 

22. St. Lucius M. died on 4th March, 253. 

23. St. Stephen M. elected on 13th May, 253, sat until 2d August, 

257. 

24. St. Xystus II. M. died on 6th August, 258. 

25. St. Dionysius sat from 22d July, 259, until 26th December, 269. 

26. St. Felix I. elected on 28th December, 269, died on 22d December, 

274. ' 

27. St. Eutychian elected on 5th January, 275, died on 7th December, 

283. 

28. St. Cajus elected on 15th December, 283, died on 21st April, 296. 

29. St. Marcellinus elected on 30th June, 296, died on 24th October, 

304. 

FOURTH CENTURY. 

30. St. Marcellus I., after an interregnum, sat one year and six months, 

and died 16th January, 310. 

31. St. Etjsebius elected 5th February, sat until 21st June. 

32. St. Miltiades elected on 2d July, 310, died on 10th January, 314. 

33. St. Sylvester I. elected on 30th January, 314, died on 31st Decem- 

ber, 335. 

34. St. Mark created Pope 18th January, 336, died 7th October, 336. 

35. St. Julius I. elected on 26th October, 336, (6th February, 337, 

according to Pagi,) sat until 12th April, 352. 



* The list of St. Irenseus closes with Eleutherius. Hegesippus, a convert from Judaism, 
composed a list at the same time. 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 431 

36. St. Liberius was elected on 8th May, 352. Felix II. was intruded 

in 355.* Liberius was restored in 359 : he died on 23d September, 
366. 

37. St. Damasus I. sat from 1st October, 366, until 10th December, 

384. 

38. St. Siricius sat from 22d December, 384, until 26th November, 

398. 

39. St. Anastasius I.f sat from 5th December, 398, until 14th Decem- 

ber, 401. 

FIFTH CENTURY. 

40. St. Innocent I. sat from 21st December, 401, until 12th March, 

417. 

41. St. Zosimtjs sat from 18th March, 417, until 26th December, 418. 

42. St. Boniface I. sat from 29th December, 418, until 4th September, 

422. 

43. St. Celestine I. sat from 10th September, 422, until 18th July, 

432. 

44. St. Sixtus III. sat from 24th July, 432, until 11th August, 440. 

45. J St. Leo the Great sat from 22d September, 440, until 4th Novem- 

ber, 461. 

46. St. Hilary sat from 12th November, 461, until 21st February, 468. 

47. St. Simplicttjs sat from 25th Februrary, 468, until 2d March, 483. 

48. St. Felix III. sat from 6th March, 483, untiL24th February, 492. 

49. St. Gelasius I. sat from 1st March, 492, until 19th November, 496. 

50. St. Anastasius II. sat from 24th November, 496, until 17th No- 

vember, 498. 

51. St. Symmaceojs sat from 22d November, 498, until 19th July, 514. 

SIXTH CENTURY. 

52. St. Hormisdas sat from 27th July, 514, until 6th August, 523. 

53. St. John I. sat from 13th August, 523, until 18th May, 526. 

54. St. Felix IY. sat from 12th July, 526, until 18th September, 529. 

55. Boniface II. sat from 21st September, 529, until 16th October, 532. 

56. John II. sat from 31st December, 532, until 26th May, 535. 

57. St. Agapetus I. sat from 3d June, 535, until 22d April, 536. 

58. St. Sylveritjs M. created 8th June, 536, removed 18th November, 

537, died on 20th June, 540. 

59. Vigtlius intruded, afterward legitimate, sat until January, 555. 

* Felix is put in the list of Popes by many : St. Augustin omits him. 
f The list of St. Augustin ends with Anastasius. 

J Prosper, a contemporary author, numbers him 47th ; as he should be numbered if Ana- 
cletus and Felix be counted. 



432 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES 



60. Pelagius I. sat from 11th April, 555, until 1st March, 560. 

61. John ILL sat from 18th July, 560, until 13th July, 573. 

62. St. Benedict I. sat from 3d June, 574, until 30th July, 578. 

63. Pelagius II. sat from 30th November, 578, until 8th February. 

590. 

64. St. Gregory the Great sat from 3d September, 590, until 12th 

March, 604. 

SEVENTH CENTURY. 

65. Sabinian sat from 13th September, 604, to 22d February, 606. 

66. Boniface LLL. sat from 19th February, 607, to 10th November, 607. 

67. St. Boniface IV. sat from 25tb August, 608, until 7th May. 615. 

68. St. Dettsdedit sat from 19th October, 615, until 8th November, 

618. 

69. Boniface Y. sat from 23d December, 619, until 22d October, 625. 

70. HoNORirs I. sat from»27th October, 625, until 12th October, 63 S. 

71. Seyerinus sat from 28th May, 640, until 1st August, 640. 

72. John IV. sat from 24th December, 640, until 11th October, 642. 

73. Theodore sat from 24th November, 642, until 13th May, 649. 

74. St. Martin I. M. sat from 5th July, 649, until 19th June, 653, 

when he was carried into banishment. He died on 16th September, 
655. 

75. St. Eugenics I. was chosen on 8th September, 654, by the clergy, 

who feared that the emperor would force a heretic into the chair, 
if they awaited the actual occurrence of a vacancy. The election 
was approved of by Martin. Eugernus died on 1st June, 657. 

76. St; Yitalian sat from 30th July, 657, until 27th January, 672. 

77. Adeodatus II. sat from 22d April, 672, until 26th June, 676. 

78. DonusI. sat from 1st November, 676, until 11th April, 678. 

79. St. Agatho sat from 27th June, 678, until 10th January, 682. 

80. St. Leo II. sat from 17th August, 682, until 3d July, 683. 

81. St. Benedict II. sat from 26th June, 684, until 7th May, 685. 

82. John Y. sat from 23d July, 685, until 1st August, 686. 

83. Conon sat from 21st October, 686, until 21st September, 687. 

84. St. Sergius I. sat from 15th December, 687, until 7th September, 

701. 

EIGHTH CENTURY. 

85. John YI. sat from 28th October, 701, to 9th January, 705. 

86. John YII. sat from 1st March, 705, until 17th October, 707. 

87. Sisinnius sat from 18th January, 708, until 6th February, 708. 

88. Constantine sat from 25th March, 708, until 8th April, 715. 

• 89. St. Gregory II. sat from 19th May, 715, until 10th February. 731. 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



433 



90. St. Gregory III. sat from 18th March, 731, until 27th November, 

741. 

91. St. Zacharias sat from 30th November, 741, until 14th March, 

752. 

92. Stephen I.* elected immediately, died in three days. 

93. Stephen II. sat from 26th March, 752, until 24th April, 757. 

94. St. Paul I. sat from 29th May, 757, until 28th June, 767. 

95. Stephen III. sat from 7th August, 768, until 2d February, 772. 

96. Hadrian I. sat from 9th February, 772, until 25th December, 795. 

97. St. Leo III. sat from 25th December, 795, until 11th June, 816. 



NINTH CENTURY. 

98. Stephen IV. sat from 22d June, 816, until 24th January, 817. 

99. St. Paschal I. sat from 25th January, 817, until 10th February, 

824. 

100. Eugene II. sat from 14th February, 824, until August, 827. 

101. Valentine sat forty days. 

102. G-regory IV. sat over sixteen years, until 25th January, 844. 

103. Sergius II. sat from 10th February, 844, until 27th January, 847. 

104. St. Leo IV. sat from 11th April, 847, until 17th July, 855. 

105. Benedict III. elected immediately, consecrated on 29th September, 

855, sat until 8th April, 858. 

106. St. Nicholas I. sat from 24th April, 858, until 13th November, 

867. 

107. Hadrian II. sat from 14th December, 867, until 26th November, 

872. 

108. John VIII. sat from 14th December, 872, until 15th December, 

882 

109. Marinus sat from the end of December, 882, until May, 884. 

110. Hadrian III. sat from June, 884, until September, 885. 

111. Stephen V. elected about the end of September, 885, died in Sep- 

tember, 891. 

112. Formosus sat from October, 891, until 4th April, 896. Boniface 

VI. sat only sixteen days. He is not acknowledged by Baronius ; 
but many number him among the lawful Popes. Stephen VI. in- 
truded before 20th August, 896, was strangled in prison in 897.f 

113. Bom anus sat from September, 897, until February, 898. 

114. Theodore II. lived only twenty days after his election. 

115. John IX. elected in July, 898, sat until August, 900. 

* As he was not consecrated, he is passed over in most of the lists, from which circum- 
stance a difference arises in numbering the Popes of that name. 

f Stephen is commonly put in the list of Popes, although Graveson holds him to he an 
intruder. 

28 



434 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



TENTH CENTURY. 

116. Benedict IV. elected in August, 900, sat until October, 903. 

117. Leo V. elected in October, 903, sat less than two months. Christo- 

pher, an intruder, occupied the See during six months. 

118. Sergius III. was consecrated in June, 804, and sat until August, 

911. 

119. Anastasius III. sat from the end of August, 911, until October, 

913. 

120. Lando sat from October, 913, until 26th April, 914. 

121. John X. sat from 30th April, 914, was suffocated in prison on 2d 

July, 928. 

122. Leo VI. sat from July, 928, until February, 929. 

123. Stephen VII. sat from 3d February, 929, until 15th March, 931. 

124. John XI. sat from March, 931, until January, 936. 

125. Leo VLT. sat from 9th January, 936, until 18th July, 939. 

126. Stephen VIII. sat from July, 939, until December, 942. 

127. Marinus II. sat from December, 942, until June, 946. 

128. Agapetus II. sat from June, 946, until August, 956. 

129. John XII. Octavian, the first who changed his name, held the 

pontificate from 20th August, 956, until 14th May, 964. An anti- 
pope named Leo VIII. was set up by the Emperor Otto, on 6th 
December, 963. He died in March, 965. 

130. Benedict V. elected on 19th May, 964, sat until 4th July, 965. 

131. John XIII. sat from 1st October, 965, until 6th September, 972. 

132. Benedict VI. sat from December, 972, until 974. He was strangled, 

and Boniface VII. was intruded, who, after a month, was expelled, 
but again occupied the See during some months, after the death of 
John XIV. 

133. Donus II. sat until 975. 

134. Benedict VII. sat from March, 975, until 10th July, 984. 

135. John XIV. died in 985, after governing during eight months. 

136. John XV.* sat from December, 985, until April, 996. 

137. Gregory V. sat from May, 996, until 18th February, 999. An 
• antipope named John XVI. was set up in May, 997, by Crescentius 

of Nomentum, who exercised tyrannical sway at Rome. 

138. Sylvester II. elected on 28th February, consecrated on 2d April, 

999, sat until 11th May, 1003. 



* Another John, son of Robert, died without being consecrated, or was not true Pope, 
wherefore he is not counted. 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



435 



ELEVENTH CENTURY. 

139. John XVII.,* whose family name was Sicco, sat from 13th June, 

1003, until. 7th December. 

140. John XVIII., named Fasanus, consecrated on 26th December, 

1003, died in May, 1009. 

141. Sergius IV. sat until 18th August, 1012. 

142. Benedict VIII. succeeded before 23d November, but was expelled 

by the antipope Gregory, and restored by St. Henry, King of 
Germany. He died before October, 1024. 

143. John XIX. sat nine years and nine days. 

144. Benedict IX. was elected toward the end of 1033. He was deposed 

by the Romans in a revolt on 29th June, 1037. In May, 1044, he 
was driven away a second time, when an antipope, styled Sylvester 
III., was intruded during three months. Benedict abdicated in 
favor of Gregory VI., but on the death of Clement II. he re- 
turned, and occupied the See during eight months, until 17th 
July, 1048. He is said to have died penitent at Grotta Ferrata. 

145. Gregory VI. obtained from Benedict the renunciation of his claims 

in 1044, and sat two years and eight months, but resigned in the 
Council of Sutri. 

146. Clement II. sat from 25th December, 1046, until 9th October, 

1047. 

147. Damasus II. created on 17th July, 1048, sat twenty-three days. 

148. St. Leo IX.f elected on 2d February, 1049, enthroned on 12th, sat 

until 19th April, 1054. 

149. Victor II. elected on 13th April, 1055, enthroned on 16th, sat 

until 28th July, 1057. 

150. Stephen IX. sat from 2d August, 1057, until 29th March, 1058. 

On the death of Stephen, an antipope styled Benedict X. was set 
up by the Romans. He sat nine months and twenty days, and 
afterward submitted to the lawful Pontiff. 

151. Nicholas II. sat from 28th December, 1058, until 22d July, 1061. 

152. Alexander II. sat from 1st October, 1061, until 21st April, 1073. 

153. St. Gregory VII. sat from 22d April, 1073, until 25th May, 

1085. 

154. Victor III. elected, after refusing during a year, on 24th May, 

1086, fled after four days, was consecrated 21st March, 1087, and 
died on 16th September, 1087. 

155. Urban II. sat from 12th March, 1088, until 29th July, 1099. 



* As many documents bore the name of the antipope, John XVI., this Pontiff took the 
name of John XVII., to prevent his acts being confounded with those of the antipope. 
•J" Leo VIII. was an antipope whom Otho intruded in place of John XII. 



436 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



TWELFTH CENTURY. 

156. Pascal II. sat from 13th August, 1099, until 21st January, 1118. 

157. G-elasius II. elected 27th January, 1118, consecrated on 10th 

March, sat until 29th January, 1119. 

158. Callistus II. sat from 1st February, 1119, until 13th December, 

1124. 

159. Eonorius II. sat from 21st December, 1124, until 14th February, 

1130. 

160. Innocent II. sat from 15th February, 1130, until 24th September, 

1143. 

161. Celestine II. sat from 26th September, 1143, to 9th March, 

1144. 

162. Lucius II. sat from 12th March, 1144, until 25th February, 1145, 

when he was killed in a sedition by the throw of a stone. 

163. Eugene III. sat from 27th February, 1145, until 7th July, 1153. 

The Arnaldists forced him to flee from the city in 1146, but he re- 
entered in 1149. 

164. Anastasius IV. elected on 9th July, 1153, sat until 2d December, 

1154. 

165. Hadrian IV. elected on 3d, and consecrated on 5th December, 

1154, died on 1st September, 1159. 

166. Alexander III. elected on 7th, and consecrated on 20th Septem- 

ber, 1159, sat until 30th August, 1181. 

167. Lucius III. sat from 1st September, 1181, until 24th November, 

1185. 

168. Urban III. elected 25th November, consecrated 1st December, 

1185, sat until 19th October, 1187. 

169. Gregory VIII. elected 20th, consecrated on 25th October, 1187, 

sat until 17th December, 1187. 

170. Clement III. elected on 19th December, 1187, sat until 27th 

March, 1191. 

171. Celestine III. elected on 30th March, ordained priest on 13th 

April, 1191, consecrated bishop on 14th, sat until 8th January, 
1198. 

THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 

172. Innocent III. sat from 8th January, 1198, until 16th July, 1216. 

173. Honorius III. sat from 18th July, 1216, until 18th March, 1227. 

174. Gregory IX. sat from 19th March, 1227, until 21st August, 1241. 

175. Celestine IV. elected in October, 1241, sat only seventeen days. 

176. Innocent IV. elected on 25th May, and consecrated on 28th June, 

1243, sat until 7th December,. 1254. 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 437 

177. Alexander IV. elected on 12th, crowned on 20th December, 1254, 

died on 25th May, 1261. 

178. Urban IY. elected 29th August, consecrated on 4th September, 

1261, sat until 2d October, 1264. 

179. Clement IY. sat from 22d February, 1265, until 29th November, 

1268. 

180. Gregory X. elected on 1st September, 1271, crowned on 27th 

March, 1272, died on 10th January, 1276. 

181. Innocent Y. elected on 21st January, crowned on 22d February, 

1276, died on 22d June, 1276. 

182. Hadrian Y. sat from 10th July, 1276, only during thirty-nine days. 

183. John XXI.* elected on" 15th, and crowned on 20th September, 

1276, died on 16th May, 1277. 

184. Nicholas III. elected on 25th November, ordained priest on 18th 

December, consecrated on the 19th, and crowned on 26th Decem- 
ber, 1277, died on 22d August, 1280. 

185. Martin IY.f elected 22d February, crowned on 23d March, 1281, 

sat until 29th March, 1285. 

186. Honoritjs IY. sat from 2d April, 1285, until 3d April, 1287. 

187. Nicholas IY. sat from 22d February, 1288, until 4th April, 1292. 

188. St. Celestine Y. elected on 5th July, 1294, crowned on 29th Au- 

gust, voluntarily abdicated on 13th December, 1294, died on 19th 
May, 1296. 

189. Boniface YIII.J sat from 24th December, 1294, until 11th Octo- 

ber, 1303. 

FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

190. B. Benedict XI.§ sat from 22d October, 1303, until 6th July, 1304. 

191. Clement Y. sat from 5th June, 1305, until 20th April, 1314. He 

was the first Pope who resided at Avignon. 

192. John XXII. sat from 7th August, 1316, until 4th December, 1334. 

193. B. Benedict XII. sat from 20th December, 1334, until 25th April, 

1342. 

194. Clement YI. sat from 7th May, 1342, until 4th December, 1352. . 

195. Innocent YI. sat from 18th December, 1352, until 12th Septem- 

ber, 1362. 

196. Urban Y. sat from 23d September, 1362, until 9th December, 

1370. He established his residence at Rome in 1367, but returned 
to Avignon, and died there. 

* He was styled XXL, probably because an antipope in the time of Gregory V. had 
been called John XX. 

■f The Marini have been popularly confounded with those named Martin, and counted 
with them. He was the second of the name of Martin. 

J Boniface VII. was an antipope. $ An antipope had been called Benedict X. 



438 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



197. Gregory XI. sat from 5th January, 1371, until 17th March, 1378. 

He re-established the Papal residence at Rome. 

198. Urban VI. sat from 8th April, 1378, until 15th October, 1389. 

Several cardinals created an antipope, Clement VII., who resided 
at Avignon, and was succeeded by Benedict XII. or XIII. 

199. Boniface IX.* sat from 2d November, 1389, until 1st October, 

1404. 

FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

200. Innocent VII. sat from 17th October, 1404, until 6th November, 

1406. 

201. Gregory XII. was chosen on 30th November, 1406. He abdicated 

on the 14th July, 1415, in the Council of Constance. Alexander 
V. was chosen in the Council of Pisa, on 26th June, 1409, who 
dying on 4th May, 1410, was succeeded by John XXIH.f 

202. Martin V. sat from 11th November, 1417, until 20th February, 

1431. 

203. Eugene IV. sat from 3d March, 1431, until 23d February, 1447. 

204. Nicholas V. sat from 5th March, 1447, until 24th March, 1455. 

205. Callistus HI. sat from 8th April, 1455, until 6th August, 1458. 

206. Pius II. sat from 19th August, 1458, until 14th August, 1464. 

207. Paul II. sat from 30th August, 1464, until 16th July, 1471. 

208. Sixtus IV. sat from 9th August, 1471, until 13th August, 1484. 

209. Innocent VIII. sat from 29th August, 1484, until 25th July, 

1492. 

210. Alexander VI. sat from 11th August, 1492, until 18th August, 

1503. 

SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

211. Pius III. elected on 22d September, 1503, lived only twenty-six 

days. 

212. Julius II. elected on All-hallow-eve, and consecrated on 26th No- 

vember, 1503, sat until 21st February, 1513. 

213. Leo X. elected on 15th March, 1513, died on 1st December, 1521. 

214. Adrian VI. elected on 9th January, 1522, sat until 14th September, 

1523. 

215. Clement VU. sat from 19th November, 1523, until 26th Septem- 

ber, 1534. 

216. Paul III. sat from 13th October, 1534, until 10th November, 

1549. 



* Two antipopes had borne this name. 

j Alexander V. and John XXIII. are found in most of the lists, even in those published 
at Rome. 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



439 



217. Julius HT. sat from 8th February, 1550, until 23d March, 1555. 

218. Marcellus IT. sat from 9th April, 1555, only twenty-two days. 

219. Paul IV. sat from 23d May, 1555, until 17th August, 1559. 

220. Pius IV. sat from 26th December, 1559, until 10th December, 

1565. 

221. St. Pius V. sat from 7th January, 1566, until 1st May, 1572. 

222. Geegoey XILL sat from 13th May, 1572, until 10th April, 1588. 

223. Sixtus V. sat from 24th April, 1588, until 27th August, 1590. 

224. Ueban VII. elected on 15th September, 1590, died on 27th of 

the same month. 

225. Geegoey XIV. sat from 5th December, 1590, until 15th October, 

1591. 

226. Innocent IX. sat from 29th October, 1591, to 30th December. 

227. Clement VEIL sat from 30th January, 1592, until 3d March, 

1603. 



SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

228. Leo XI. elected on 2d April, 1605, and crowned on the 10th, died 

on the 27th of same month. 

229. Paul V. sat from 16th May, 1605, until 28th January, 1621. 

230. Geegoey XV. sat from 9th February, 1621, until 8th July, 1623. 

231. Ueban VIII. sat from 6th August, 1623, until 29th July, 1644. 

232. Innocent X. sat from 15th September, 1644, until 7th January, 

1655. 

233. Alexander VLI. sat from 6th April, 1655, until 22d May, 1667= 

234. Clement IX. sat from 20th June, 1667, until 9th December, 1669. 

235. Clement X. sat from 29th April, 1670, until 22d July, 1676. 

236. Innocent XI. sat from 21st September, 1676, until 31st July, 

1689. 

237. Alexander VHI. sat from 6th October, 1689, until 1st February, 

1691. 

238. Innocent XH. sat from 13th July, 1691, until 26th September, 

1700. 

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 

239. Clement XI. sat from 23d November, 1700, until 19th March, 

1721. 

240. Innocent XHI. sat from 8th May, 1721, until 7th March, 1724. 

241. Benedict XIII. sat from 29th May, 1724, until 21st February, 

1730. 

242. Clement XII. sat from 12th July, 1730, until 6th February, 

1740. 



440 



CATALOGUE OF THE POPES. 



243. Benedict XIV. sat from 17th August, 1740, until 3d May, 1758. 

244. Clement XIII. sat from 6th July, 1758, until 2d February, 1769. 

245. Clement XIV. sat from 19th May, 1769, until 22d September, 

1774. 

246. Pius VI. sat from 15th February, 1775, until 29th August, 1799. 

NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

247. Pius VII. sat from 14th March, 1800, until 23d August, 1823. 

248. Leo XII. sat from 28th September, 1823, until 10th February, 

1829. 

249. Pius VIII. sat from 31st March, 1829, until 30th November, 1830. 

250. Gregory XVI. sat from 2d February, 1831, until 1st June, 1846. 
251* Pius IX. elected 17th June, 1846. 



* The number varies, according as certain individuals are considered intruders, or law- 
ful Popes. This is a matter for critical inquiry, and does not affect the succession. 



THE END. 



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